The final step for the new hatch lens was to apply additional sealant to the groove around the outer edge of the lens, which I’d chosen not to do in the same operation as the initial (and more critical) bonding and sealing operation earlier because access to the groove was poor, what with the various clamps and weights securing the lens at the time.  Now, with the initial application cured sufficiently, I installed a bead of the sealant abundantly into the groove, then tooled it out smoothly, keeping it flush with the top surface of the protective paper on the hatch lens, as any sealant that overlapped this paper would make it difficult to remove the paper later without affecting the bead.  I removed the masking tape from the outer edges, where I’d applied it to protect the hatch frame and make cleanup easier, but for now left the paper in place on the lens so as not to disturb the fresh bead of sealant, despite my urge to remove it and display the finished product.

I took a few minutes to reinstall the transom boarding ladder that I’d removed early in the project.

Next, I masked off for bottom paint, and applied a coat of the owner’s chosen paint, which further progressed the final appearance of the hull.  The cove stripe, which would match as closely as possible the boottop, would truly finish off the appearance, but although I’d pre-ordered some striping tape for the job, I’d had a last minute decision to purchase tape in another shade of blue so I could compare the two, and that new order had yet to arrive.

Before leaving for the day, I decided to carefully remove the paper from the new hatch lens.  The completed project looked great, and the sealant I’d applied beneath the lens (to secure it to the frame) was now clearly visible through the lens, and as hoped, or even expected, the seal was consistent and void-free in all areas, which ought to do well in terms of securing the lens and preventing future leaks.

After allowing the fresh boottop paint to cure overnight, I could go ahead and remove all the masking.  Since this was the last painting step for the hull, I could remove the toerail and deck masking as well.  I bent to this task through the morning, eventually removing all the tape, paper, and plastic to expose the completed paint.  The boat looked terrific, but would look even better once I finished a couple additional details, like painting the bottom and installing the cove stripe.

Next, I turned to the hatch repair, and removed the clamps from the lens so I could clean up the squeezeout on the bottom side, and remove the protective paper there.  I left the paper on the top surface for now, pending application of the final bead of black sealant around the hatch perimeter soon.

The hull paint now had had enough cure time, so to prepare for spraying the boottop, I covered the topsides in plastic sheeting, draped from toerail to boottop.  Once I’d hung that, I moved the staging out of the way and masked the top edge of the boottop, using two layers of tape:  First a layer of blue vinyl fine-line tape, which resisted the solvents in the LPU paint to avoid bleed-under; then, because the shiny, non-absorbent tape tended to let paint pool and then sag onto the surface below if left uncovered, I applied a layer of my normal green tape over it, covering as much as possible.

I finished up the masking by applying a layer of masking paper above the boottop, to cover the plastic and provide an extra layer of protection, and also provide a non-glossy surface to avoid the possibility of sags from the overspray.

With that, the boottop was finally ready to spray, and during the remains of the morning I applied three coats of Stars & Stripes blue to the stripe, leaving it to cure overnight.

I cleaned up and reassembled the spray gun, which I’d left soaking overnight, and then removed what masking I could from the hull, mainly the various hardware and through hulls on the transom and counter.  I removed the masking paper and tape from the top edge of the boottop area.  For now, this was all I could do on the hull itself, as I needed to give the fresh paint additional cure time before masking over the topsides to spray the boottop.

This gave me time to continue work on the hatch lens replacement.  The lens was intentionally a bit smaller than the hatch opening, leaving a cosmetic caulking groove around the perimeter, meaning the lens could move about fairly easily in the opening.  But I needed to secure it in a reproducible way so that I could flip the hatch and trim the protective paper around the structural members beneath.  To register the lens from the top side of the hatch, I came up with an easy method using some paint sticks taped to the paper on the top surface of the lens; this simply held the lens from sliding in any direction, which meant that once I’d trimmed the paper, I could easily place the lens in the opening and know that the prepared surfaces would properly mate.

I clamped the lens lightly in place, then turned the hatch over so I could use a sharp knife to carefully score the paper around all the inside edges of the aluminum hatch frame, after which I removed the paper from these bonding areas.

After a final cleanup of the prepared hatch frame, I secured the lens in place with heavy beads of Sikaflex 295UV, and clamped and weighted the lens into the fresh sealant.  I did not try to fill and tool the cosmetic seam around the outside of the lens now, as it was impossible to clamp the lens and still access the outer seam; that would happen later, after the initial sealant application cured.  All the sealing and bonding of the lens occurred with the initial sealant application, and the outer edge was largely a cosmetic concern.  Although I couldn’t get the camera beneath the hatch the way it was supported on the table, I did peer beneath by eye to confirm good contact of the lens and squeezeout of sealant all around the inside.  I left the assembly to cure.

During the morning hours and after final preparations, I applied three coats of gloss snow white topcoat to the hull, leaving it to cure overnight.

Now that the work of striking and marking the new boottop was complete, I dismantled the beams and supports and focused on masking just beneath the marks, creating the actual line of the boottop; above this line would be topside paint, which was going to be the next coating applied.  For now, I masked the entire boat to the line, but I planned to sheer the forward section of the stripe on both sides.

With a level and planar line like that struck,  the nature of the shape of the bow sections in a boat like this causes the eye to think the striping gets narrower towards the bow, even though it’s actually wider even as struck.  To accommodate and correct this trompe l’oeil, I chose to sheer the forward sections of the boottop–that is, raise the forward end and blend the line into the after portions of the stripe.  In this case, I chose to raise the stripe 1-1/2″ at the stem, a number I chose more or less randomly but not without thought and consideration:  this height just seemed to fit the bow sections somehow, given the waterline sections, flare, and sheerline.  With a square, I made a tick mark at the stem at the new height.  Then, I measured along the top of the stripe from the stem aft, making little marks on the tape at 8′, 9′, and 10′ aft–roughly 1/3-1/2 of the waterline length aft, or about where the hull shape started to more vigorously narrow after maximum beam.

 

Any of these marks might be the starting point for the new line, but in this case the 10′ mark looked like the right place from which to start–this is a subjective and eyeball thing–so with tape stuck in place at that point, I stretched it forward to meet the new reference marks at the stem, creating a gradually-sheered new boottop line by eye between the two points.  I checked reference measurement or two on each side to determine that the tape was roughly similar on both sides.  In practice, and viewed as one normally would with the boat in the water or from a short distance, this line would not appear obviously curved or shaped, but would simply look right (at least such is the goal).   One sees rightness without understanding it; the eye is more drawn to anomalies and wrongness.

Afterwards, I masked off the hull beneath the new boottop line to prevent overspray during hull painting.

I finished up all other usual pre-painting preparations, including rinsing down the shop, preparing painting supplies, and installing a series of additional lights around the boat to spotlight it brightly and improve visibility during spraying the topcoat.  It’s virtually impossible to have enough light around the boat at this stage, as keeping tabs on where the spraygun has been becomes increasingly difficult with each new coat applied.

I wrapped up preparations with a final solvent-wash and tack-off.

I began the day at the controls of my sander, and sanded the hull with 320 grit to abrade the fresh primer and prepare it for the next steps.    Afterwards, I blew down the shop and plastic covering the decks to remove dust, then vacuumed and solvent-washed the hull.

Next, I needed to establish and strike the boottop, so I set up my two horizontal end beams once more, this time at a height 2-1/2″ above the waterline mark–the desired visual height of the boottop, which happened to match that which had been on the boat upon arrival.  At the stern, I first set the beam back up at waterline height, since I had no other means of determining the new boottop height and, with the beam at that level, used a steel rule positioned perpendicular to the beam to make a tick mark at the appropriate place on the centerline of the counter, 2-1/2″ above the previously-struck waterline.  Then, I raised the beam and leveled it at the new mark.  The angle of the counter was such that there was no easier or necessarily better way to establish the new mark.

At the bow, the stem angle was steeper and therefore it was easy enough to use a small square set to 2-1/2″ to make a new tick mark on the stem at the appropriate height, where I could then set up the level beam in one operation.

Now I strung a tensioned string between the beams, just tangent to and touching the hull at the maximum beam roughly amidships, and, taping it to the hull, slowly pulled the string closer to centerline at the stern bit by bit, marking the hull at each tape location, till I reached the centerline, giving me a series of tick marks from which I could tape the line.  I repeated the process on the port bow, then moved the string to the starboard side and completed the marking there just before the end of the day.  This put a crick in my neck since the boat’s waterline was above my head, and the string level at the top of the boottop was just about at my maximum reach.

Next time, I’d mask off the new line and continue with other preparations.