Over the weekend, I finished up the primer sanding with 320 grit paper on the starboard side.

Now, I spent the morning completing a thorough cleaning of the boat and shop–blowdown, vacuum and solvent wash, and a water rinse of the staging and floor and anything else I could.

The owners sent me some tubular handrails they planned to use, and I set one up on the deck in the approximate position as an illustration, keeping the aft end just a bit forward of the dodger position.

In the afternoon, I got started on masking for the final topcoats, marking and masking off the eventual nonskid field areas.  I began in the cockpit.  I masked off 1-1/2″ wide borders all around, except where the cockpit hatches would be, where I reduced the width to 3/4″ (with eventual corresponding 3/4″ width on the hatches themselves).  I also reduced the width to 3/4″ on either side of the large, deep drain gutters at the forward end of the cockpit, as the wider borders seemed too much here.  Along the outer edges of the cockpit, I made an allowance for the 7/8″ coaming thickness and increased the border width accordingly, so the exposed, visual area of the border would end up at the desired 1-1/2″.

Moving to the coachroof, I temporarily positioned the sea hood where it belonged so I could properly mask the borders around it.  While it was there, I masked off the top of the hood for nonskid as well.  Then I continued over the rest of the coachroof, ending just shy of finishing the job with only the outer edges left to mask; these would take a little more thought and work to lay out properly along the widely-radiused cabin top edges.  I’d finish that up first thing next time, then move on to the sidedecks and the gunwales.

 

With only a half day available, I managed to sand a good portion of the fresh primer, using 320 grit by machine and by hand.  I started with the loose hatches and sea hood, then moved on to the cockpit and coachroof, and finally the port sidedeck, foredeck, toerails, cabin side, and sheer strake before I ran out of time.  All that remained to finish was the starboard sidedeck and environs, which I planned to finish over the weekend.

After final preparations, I applied three coats of epoxy finish primer over all deck areas.  As before, I started with three coats on the cockpit well and inboard coachroof areas–places I needed to reach from the sidedecks–then continued with three coats on all other areas thereafter.

After an unwanted day’s delay, the filler was ready to sand, and I got right to it.  Afterwards, I cleaned up the boat and the shop in the usual ways–blowdown, vacuum, solvent wash, and a water rinse to the staging and shop floor to settle the remaining dust.

I spent the remainder of the day on the final preparations required for finish primer, including some minor masking repairs, a second solvent wash for all deck areas, preparing hoses and spray equipment, and various other tasks to ready the boat and equipment for finish primer next time.  I added a 1/2″ strip of tape at the bottom edge of the sheer strake, raising the line to which the finish primer would extend.  This would make it easier to taper the masked edges of the two different primers when I started work on the hull later.

One of the pitfalls of the fine filler I like to use at this stage is that it is a slow-cure hardener.  There’s a fast-hardener version (red), but I don’t care for it; I tried it years ago and while I can’t remember what it was I didn’t like, I know I didn’t, so I always use the gray slow version.  But even in good times the product takes its time coming to a workable cure.

I had applied the filler late the day before, and though I’d hoped otherwise, I knew there was a chance it wouldn’t quite be ready to sand in the morning–and indeed it was not.  I could still dent the filler with a fingernail, and my attempt to sand (I had to try) resulted in immediately-clogged discs.  This was frustrating, but there was nothing for it but to bump the heat and wait.

I mollified myself by doing what I could to prepare the primers and equipment for the next step, work that had to be done sometime, so doing it now would save me some time after sanding, whenever it happened.

Over the weekend, I spent several hours getting a jump start on the sanding, beginning with the cockpit, then the coachroof.  This set me up well to begin the regular work week with the remainder of the sanding on the sidedecks, foredeck, cabin sides, toerails, and gunwales.  I sanded the primer with 220 grit paper by finishing sander and hand as needed, then vacuumed up the dust.

Next, I solvent-washed all areas to clean and remove the final traces of sanding dust, then went around the boat with a strong light and magnifying glasses to help highlight and mark  with a pencil the various areas that would require fine filler.  These areas were mainly pinholes in the deck filler, porosity in the new or old/exposed laminate, and a few areas that the primer had helped bring to my attention, such as some places where the old nonskid pattern was slightly showing through.  This was a known and expected part of the process and one of the main benefits of the high-build primer application.  Most areas wouldn’t show up in these photos, but I included a few to represent the sorts of areas I marked.

I prepared a batch of fine filler that I like for this stage of the project, and troweled it into the various voids around the decks as needed.

In a landmark day, I spray-applied three coats of epoxy high-build primer over the deck areas, starting with the inboard portions of the coachroof and cockpit, which areas I had to access from the nearby sidedecks, and then moving on to the main decks, cabin trunk, toerails, loose hatches and sea hood, and upper reaches of the hull-deck joint above the topsides.

I finished up the sanding around the companionway, all by hand and focusing on the rails and areas that had been covered by the hatch (which I’d kept in place for the duration of the deck work to protect the interior).  With the sanding complete to match the rest of the decks, I cleaned up and masked off the companionway for painting.

Next, I went around with a 1/8″ drill bit and drilled pilot holes (only a short way into the decks) at the various hardware locations where I’d marked earlier.  At some locations, where the positioning of the hardware would be self-evident, I drilled a single hole for basic alignment purposes; other locations required more holes to ensure proper alignment.  In any event, these holes were for location purpose only and not necessarily the absolute final position of the hardware holes themselves.  (In other words, one shouldn’t use them to drill actual fastener holes without placing the hardware in position first).

After a final vacuum over the decks, I solvent-washed again with the manufacturer’s proprietary solvent designed for the purpose.

Meanwhile, I prepared spray equipment and painting supplies and the myriad other tasks required to get ready for the next few weeks of priming and painting, along with some additional deck and staging preparations so I could walk and kneel on the decks as required in order to reach the inboard portions of the cockpit (particularly the well) and the coachroof during the first stage of priming.

I had somewhere I had to be later in the day, so had only a short time to accomplish anything.  I continued with the masking tasks, working on the two deck hatches to finish up all deck masking other than the companionway, which I needed to sand first (where the hatch had been in the way before).

Next, I covered the hull with plastic to protect against overspray, and added a strip of paper at the top edge to avoid the paint-flaking problems that happen with plastic alone.

To round out my short work day, I used my hardware location patterns to mark with a Sharpie the fastener hole locations all around the sidedecks.  Later, I’d drill small pilot holes in at least some of these locations, which holes could later be used as basic reference points to align the actual hardware in the correct positions to mark and drill the actual fastener holes.

The second go-round of the dodger template got underway first thing.  Armed with new track sections and renewed resolve, Jason set to work with the existing frame and top pattern (which had stayed on the boat in the meantime), and then worked to establish the all-important windshield angle that had proved elusive last time.  The general goal was for the dodger shape to recall the angle at the forward edge of the cabin trunk, somewhere around 42°, so with the frame set up and a stiff batten, determining where that angle would land on the centerline created the first key point required to establish the rest of the parameters defining the front part of the dodger and installing the three track sections.  For reference, the center track, mounted on the sea hood, had been installed roughly 6″ aft on center from where it ended up this time; there’s a blotch of (sanded) fairing compound visible at the center behind the track in the third photo below that is the filled hole from last week’s installation.  So the new track locations were substantially further forward, which of course was what was necessary and expected this time.

With the tracks installed, the rest of hte templating process went quickly and successfully, and the new shape with its angular windshield (and resulting expansive “dashboard” on the inside) matched our expectations, the angle of the cabin trunk, and the overall shape and appearance of the boat to create the intended and desired result.

Once Jason left, I got back to masking for the remainder of the day, working my way along and masking ports and deadlights, various hardware, and the openings for the two cockpit locker hatches.

For this boat, I planned to do all the deck priming and painting first, then move on to the hull; normally I prefer to do the primers for hull and deck concurrently.  But in this case, moving the staging back and forth would be too complicated and time-consuming, and didn’t make sense.  So I had to establish a masking point between hull and deck

On the hull, the deck paint would eventually extend roughly to the line of the original seam in the hull-deck joint (now glassed over smoothly), and with no rubrail to be reinstalled on this project, this line needed to be clean and accurate.    After some consideration, and concerns about 9 coats of paint (6 primers and 3 topcoats) creating a too-heavy line at the demarcation, I decided to start with a line about an inch further down the hull then where the topcoat line would ultimately be.  This would give me some room to blend in the primers and, later, properly establish the final and accurate topcoat line where it needed to be.

To begin, using the molded knuckle shape prominently visible at the forward third of the boat (which had been the original deck-hull seam), I determined the position from a nearby molded shape in the toerail, and used a compass set to this distance to make a series of marks along the length.  I’d originally set out to make a jig from the top of the toerail, but my first attempt from 1/4″ plywood proved too flimsy, and by this point I’d run through the considerations detailed above and decided to make the final line later anyway.  So for now, the markings I made were accurate enough (and probably would be anyway).  I ran a length of tape beneath my marks; this is shown below.

Next, I ran a second strip  of tape just below that.  Once I removed the top layer of tape, I had my priming line set 1″ below the final position of the paint seam.  Sometime later, I’d protect the hull beneath this line to prevent overspray.  Later in the process, once the primers were on the deck, I’d accurately mark the topcoat line back around the position of the forward knuckle, and aft from there.

More masking and related prep remained, but for now the day was done.