To recover from the paint disappointment, I spent time over the weekend lightly sanding the hull by hand (320), just to lightly scuff the surface and prepare it for respraying.  The killer of it is that the paint looked good except for the fact that the primer still showed through; the overall finish was what I’d hoped otherwise.  But that was good news too, as it meant that sanding was quick enough and straightforward, not that I didn’t wish it wasn’t necessary.

Afterwards, I cleaned up the hull and shop to prepare for respraying.

Mentally, I was prepared that the hull color– a special custom-ordered yellow that the owners chose–wouldn’t cover as easily as most of the other colors I’d applied over the years.  Yellows tend to be difficult for whatever reason.  Even so, though, after three coats the result was worse than expected.  I debated whether to keep applying paint now and try for a fourth coat to wrap it up, but this can lead to runs or sags and by that point I wasn’t convinced the paint would cover enough anyway.  I had enough unmixed paint to do another full round of three coats, and ultimately I decided that it would be best to leave the first three coats as is for now, let it cure, and then lightly sand and, with the yellow as a base, proceed with three final coats another time.  This seemed a safer (and hopefully more effective) route than adding more paint now and still risking inadequate results, as well as using up paint that would be better used another time.

This was disappointing, of course, but the good news was that the color looked good and appeared to match what was intended,. and other than being undesirably see-through the painting had gone well enough.  I looked forward to the final result, but it would have to be another day.  I don’t like showing an inadequate result, but transparency is what I do (apparently on yellow color coats as well).

 

To get started, I masked off the raised sheer strake–which would be painted a trim color later–to protect it while doing the main part of the hull.  I masked along the bottom edge, keeping the tape just a bit shy of the juncture between the proud sheer strake section so that when I masked for the trim, I could bring the tape down onto the flat of the hull and be ensured of good hull paint coverage beneath.  At the forward and after edges, I struck curves to replicate the originals, and filled in the field with additional tape.

Next, I moved the staging out of the way so I could strike the new boottop, which required two lines:  the bottom line, set 1″ above the waterline as previously marked; and the top line, which would be 3″ above that for a 3″ visual height (matching that of the original striping).  In my habitual and well-described manner, I set up horizontal, level beams fore and aft at the proper height, then, with a taut line strung between the two, incrementally pulled in the line from roughly midships towards each end in turn, marking where the line touched the hull at each move (and masking it in place so it wouldn’t move further).  In this way, I established a series of tick marks on the hull against which I could mask the lower edge of the boottop.

With the lower line struck on both sides, I installed 3″ wide boards atop my originals, clamping them in place to establish the height of the top of the stripe.  This seemed quicker and easier than relocating the original beam itself.  Then I repeated the marking process to establish the top of the new stripe.  After breaking down the ends, I masked inside the new marks to cover the eventual boottop area for now, and this also gave a chance to critique the new lines visually.

At the bow, I established a new mark 1-1/2″ higher at the stem, then created a sheered, or raised, section of the stripe at the top edge, starting from a point 10′ aft along the waterline.  Without this additional height forward, the otherwise visually straight line always appears too narrow at the bow, but the subtle increase in height stopped far sort of being immediately noticeable in its own right.  However, it made the striping look “correct” in the flared bow sections.

Now I could reset the staging at a height appropriate for working on the hull (I went one level lower for most of the planks than before, as I’d found during the primer coats that I was too high in the after sections of the boat), then worked on final preparations, including a final solvent-wash and tack off, additional lighting to highlight the hull and make it easier to find my wet edge while spraying, and all the other things I do to prepare for paint day.

I spent the morning sanding the hull primer with 320 grit paper, by machine and hand as required.  The power went out at 1000, but I was able to continue on generator power for the remainder of the day and get through what I needed to.

Afterwards, I went through my normal cleaning procedures (blowdown, vacuum, solvent wash, shop rinse and cleaning) to prepare the boat and shop for the next step, which would be to mask off the sheer strake and new boottop.  But with the primer only just over 24 hours old, it was too soon to mask on top, so that task would await the morning.

 

Over the course of the morning hours, I sprayed four coats of epoxy finish primer on the hull.  For this boat, I mixed equal parts of white and gray primer bases to lighten the primer a bit, hoping it’d be a good base for the final hull color.

After a full weekend, there was no problem this time with the fine filler curing in time.  It didn’t take long to sand the various areas I’d filled, after which I went through the usual steps:  vacuum; solvent wash; clean up and wash down shop and staging.

For the remainder of the day, I completed all the other items on the finish primer prep list (as it were), including a final solvent-wash with the fancy solvent, preparing paint and spray equipment, tacking off the hull, and other sundry.   Next:  finish primer.

To prepare the hull, I vacuumed, then solvent-washed all areas.

With a strong light, I went carefully over the hull and marked with a pencil various minor areas requiring additional attention, mainly  open porosity in exposed laminate or fairing compound, or other small nicks or pinholes.  These photos show a couple examples (other photos I took didn’t come out clearly).

I mixed a small batch of the epoxy fine filling compound I like for this stage, and troweled it on where needed, filling the voids.  This was all I could do to move the project forward for the moment. The slow-curing material would have the full weekend to cure sufficiently before sanding again.

At some fairly recent point in time over the course of many projects over the years, I decided that I liked sanding bow sections the least of any on the boat–less enjoyable than even the uncomfortable counter sections, mainly because the bows just go on and on, with the highest freeboard and those pesky angled stems–so now I started sanding there, to finish them first.  I began on the port bow, at the aft end of the first staging section, and, using 220 grit by machine and hand, sanded the fresh high build primer as needed to smooth and prepare the surface for the next steps.  Then, I worked around the bow and down the starboard side.  I had only a few hours available, as I had to go to the airport later, so I planned to keep sanding till I had to depart.  I made it through the counter, and started back up the port side.

As it happened, I managed to finish the entire hull in the allotted time, which was a pleasant surprise.  I left things here for now, happy with the progress.  Next time, I’d clean the hull and then mark and fill any areas requiring additional work as highlighted by the primer.

After final preparations, I applied three sprayed coats of epoxy high-build primer to the hull.

Before beginning the final hull preparations, I checked the boat for level.  Though I’d leveled the boat at the beginning of the project, things can easily move during the work and vibrations, and indeed I needed to make some minor adjustments to bring the boat back to level.  Then, while the staging was still at deck height, I masked off the decks, covering them with plastic sheeting and taping securely all around at the toerail.  I brought the tape down to the bottom edge of the white-painted section of the sheer strake, where I’d masked earlier to spray the gloss white on the decks.

Next, I broke down the staging, removing all the brackets, planks, blocking, and other accoutrements as needed, and reset the planks at a comfortable height for working on the hull. Before setting back up, I took advantage of good hull access and installed a strip of masking paper below the waterline (which I’d marked and taped much earlier in the project).   Note that later on, I moved the forwardmost plank down one notch so it was even with the others, as I found it was too high where I’d set it initially.

Now I had to sand the exposed strips of high build and finish primer near the gunwales all around, in order to ease the hard edges left from previous taping and blend the two primers into the unpainted sections below.  This was all hand work and didn’t take too long.

Throughout the rest of the day, I finished up all the other details required to prepare for paint, including solvent-washing the hull a couple times (first to remove dust from the light sanding at the gunwale, then again with the final, proprietary solvent), preparing paint and spray equipment, masking off two bronze through hulls in the counter, and sundry other tasks, leaving the boat ready for high build primer in the morning.