Lackey Sailing | tim lackey

Now that the fresh nonskid had had another full day’s cure time, I felt safe to remove the remaining masking tape from the food cleats and other wooden installations inside the boat. I was disappointed to find that the paint had bled beneath the tape in several areas, staining the varnish work, so I resolved to lightly sand off the offending paint and revarnish all the bits and pieces; I needed to varnish the aft seat cleats anyway, as I’d installed bungs and sanded the faces when I installed those cleats a while back, and hadn’t had a chance to finish up the varnish work there.

With the cleats and rowlocks thusly prepared, I masked around everything and applied a coat of varnish all around. Just the one coat would be required everywhere as a touch-up, as there was plenty of buildup on all the parts. I didn’t include this time in the day’s billing.

Later on, I removed this masking tape.

In other works, I took the opportunity (before varnishing) to clean up a few paint drips that had ended up on the hull, mainly on the transom and stem. I used light scraper pressure to remove the bulk, then lightly sanded.

With time left in the day, I turned to some small jobs I could complete on the rudder and daggerboard assemblies. The starboard side of the rudder case required squaring the rudder bolt hole (created in overfilled epoxy) to accept a carriage bolt, so I took care of this task with a chisel, having first marked out the rough square with masking tape around the hole.

Next, I installed the pintles, a relatively straightforward task. There were scribed marks on the forward edge of the rudder case on both sides, which marks indicated the pintles’ positions, so I followed the instructions to lay out the initial screw holes 3/8″ in from the forward edge at the scribe mark, and dry-fit the pintles with just the one screw on each side. Then, I carefully adjusted their position so the pins were straight and inline with one another, and appropriately spaced from the rudder case itself, and drilled and dry-fit the second set of screws on each pair. The book called for setting these screws in epoxy, which was my final step.

While I had a small batch of epoxy going, I drilled a hole for and installed a hold-down pin at the forward top edge of the daggerboard. There’d be some corresponding hardware mounted to the foredeck itself to finish off this little bit later on. For now, I propped the daggerboard with the pin facing up to keep it secure while the epoxy cured.

The rudder blade got secured to the rudder case with a carriage bolt and hand wheel on the opposite side, making it easy to secure the blade in any position, from kicked up to the sailing position.

During the morning, I finished up the list of chores required to prepare for high-build application. This included touching up the hull sanding in a few places, mainly the stem and transom around the hardware, then preparing and setting up spray equipment and hoses, paint supplies, and so forth. I finished up with a final solvent wash on the hull, this time using the proprietary solvent from the paint system.

I like to do my spray painting only first thing in the morning for various reasons, so I never start part-way through a day, and I needed the overnight to raise the temperature in the shop to painting level anyway. So I turned to other things for the remainder of the day.

With the first coat of nonskid cured overnight, I started the day by rolling on a second coat on all areas.

Later in the afternoon, the second coat had cured enough that I could remove the masking tape to reveal the finished product.

I started the day vacuuming off the hull, then following with a solvent wash to remove all dust and prepare for additional masking and other prep work. With that done, I went around the hull and repaired a few places where sanding had damaged the masking tape, especially around the fittings on the transom.

Next, I re-established the location of the waterline (technically the top edge of the bottom paint) at the stem and stern using the reference measurements I’d made early in the project. Then, I set up my horizontal cross beams at each end and leveled them at the proper height.

With a line strung tautly between the beams, and just touching amidships, I struck the remainder of the line on both sides of the boat in my habitual way, pulling the string closer to the hull in increments and taping it securely so it wouldn’t move, then making tick marks and continuing the process. This ensures an accurate and planar line between the two end beams.

With the line thusly marked, I masked off just below the tick marks.

Finally, I added some masking paper below the tape to protect the bottom from overspray.

I moved the staging back into position around the hull and, since there was no way I’d be able to complete all the preparations required before primer in what remained of the day, chose this as a stopping point so I could finish some work on another project at the shop. Next time, I’d finish up the pre-primer preparations on the hull.

Over the weekend, taking an opportunity to check on the final coat of paint, I spent some time and removed most of the masking, leaving only the tape still covering the various varnished bits around the boat. I forgot to take pictures at this stage, but did take some video footage (which will be available soon).

Now, having missed the morning after events conspired to keep me out of the shop for a while, forcing a change in my intended work plans for the day, I decided the opportunity was ripe to spend the afternoon working on the dinghy.

I started by removing some of the masking tape from the rowlocks, the aft seat support, and one set of the rowing foot braces on the port side, but then decided my time would be better spent preparing the boat for nonskid; I could finish removing the tape any old time I had some spare minutes going forward. So I changed my focus and, over the next couple hours, masked over the fresh white paint to prepare the field for nonskid. I sanded away any spills or blotches of white paint from the field as needed.

For the foredeck hatch, I masked a 1″ border along the outer edge, following the shape of the hatch, then sanded the white paint in the field to prepare it for nonskid.

After final cleanup and preparations, I applied the first of two coats of gray nonskid paint to all areas, leaving it to cure overnight.

After final preparations, I applied the third coat of gloss white polyurethane to the interior of the boat, stern and bow, along with another coat on the two smaller pieces–hatch cover and daggerboard trunk filler. Again, I applied the paint with a brush, working from inside the aft half and outside the forward half. I was pleased with how this coat turned out and hoped that it would be the final finish inside the boat.

For the next rounds of sanding, I switched to 6″ orbital finishing sander, and sanded the entire hull twice more: first with 80 grit, to remove the last of the gray primer and start to remove the scratches from the previous round of sanding; and a final round with 120 grit paper to finish the surface appropriately for high-build primer.

The hull was in good shape and at this point I didn’t think there’d be any requirement to make any repairs or touch anything up. All the previous repair and fill work that had been done on the port side was in good condition, and hadn’t been vis9ible at all through the old paint, so there was no call to make any improvements there. So, gratefully, I called the sanding done, other than a few minor places I might have to hand-sand and touch up, especially at the stem where the bobstay prohibited access with sanding tools.

To make the shop habitable again, next I blew off the hull, plastic, and shop walls with compressed air, then cleaned up all the sanding dust and debris from the week’s efforts. Finally, I rinsed off the staging and floor to settle the dust. I rinsed off the bottom too. Still ahead before high-build primer: final cleanup of the topsides, repairs to the masking tape and any final detail sanding, and striking and masking off the waterline (i.e. top of the bottom paint).

I’d been anxious to get to the third coat of gloss white on the hull interior, but with an aggressive sanding project underway in the next bay taking all my time and making the environment hostile to final paint coats anyway, it took several days before I could finally get back and lightly sand the previous coat of paint. Afterwards, I cleaned up the boat and shop as needed to prepare for the final coat of paint next time.

I continued the paint removal sanding, eventually completing the aft part of the starboard hull, the counter, and the transom, and the last bit of the bottom, mainly the rudder and around the propeller aperture.

Below the rubrail, and in other tight areas around hardware, the sander could not reach all the way to remove the paint, leaving narrow bands of paint behind. Now, I went around the hull with a detail sander to remove this final bit of the old coating, the last step before I could think about the finish-sanding phase of the prep work, which would be my task for next time.

Starting now at the starboard bow, I continued the sanding work on the starboard hull, working my way towards the stern to remove the old coatings.

On the port side, while sanding early on near the waterline, I’d found additional blue layers beneath the existing boottop, and kept sanding till all the blue was gone, leaving the white gelcoat behind it. Eventually I realized that this was an old gelcoat boottop hidden beneath all the new paint (primers and the painted blue boottop that I’d repainted for the owner when the boat was in my shop previously). I felt committed to removing it all along the port hull, but now, when I revealed the same thing on the starboard side, I knew I didn’t have to remove all the old blue; it was a lot of extra work to remove it, but was unnecessary. In these photos, you can see that blue gelcoat boottop behind and beneath the painted layers of the current boottop–the old stripe was higher at the bow (first photo), and lower by the time I’d moved somewhat aft.

The point of this description is to explain why there’s still blue showing on some parts of the hull after sanding on this side. More would likely get sanded off during the next sanding round, but I saw no need to remove it all like I’d done on the previous side.

In any event, by the end of the day I’d worked aft to the starboard quarter, about 10′ forward of the transom.