Monday

Starting on the coachroof, then working down to the sidedecks and elsewhere, I laid out the nonskid field pattern and masked it off, leaving the borders and perimeters for the gloss topcoat exposed.  In most areas, I masked for a 1-1/2″ wide border; at the companionway, I left a wider area to accommodate the sea hood when installed, with 1-1/2″ allowance on the three sides.  Elsewhere, the layout was straightforward with radiused corners everywhere, and the 1-1/2″ border width continued as appropriate around the few obstructions.  I left room around the coaming overlap area forward of the cockpit so this part of the wooden coamings would also have white borders.

At the aft ends of the cabin trunk, and the forward edge of the traveler area, where I’d been making incremental preparations for the glossy paint blending, I used foam tape to help blend the transition on these final coats with the existing paint in these areas.

Afterwards, I went around and touched up a few small areas that needed some additional sanding, set up special topcoat lighting around the shop, prepared paint material and spray equipment, then performed the final cleaning with vacuum and solvent wash to prepare all areas for the paint.  In the cockpit, I also added a layer of masking paper on the seats near the coamings to cover up the plastic over the cockpit well, as the previous coats of primer had begun to flake off the plastic (as is wont to happen), and although I already had paper directly adjacent to the areas to be painted for this very reason, the extra paper to cover the flaky bits was minor insurance against contamination.  On the port sidedeck, where I’d need to step during the first phase of the painting (to reach the center areas of the coachroof), I added some sacrificial paper to protect the cleaned and prepared deck edge/toerail when I stepped aboard; I’d remove that extra paper once I finished the three coats amidships.

Total time billed on this job today:  4.25 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  10°, overcast.   Forecast for the day:  Scattered snow showers, cloudy, 17°

Friday

With a couple days of prepwork ahead before I could spray the gloss topcoats on the deck and hull, I began with a comprehensive cleanup of boat and shop, including vacuuming, compressed air blowdown, rinsing off the staging and floor, and solvent-washing the hull and deck, all to remove dust and clean the surfaces sufficiently to allow me to continue work.

With what little time I had left on this day, I gathered various supplies to prepare for the deck masking ahead, and began by masking off the hull below the toerail with tape and plastic sheeting.

Total time billed on this job today:  3.5 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  27°, clear.   Forecast for the day:  Sunny, 43°

Thursday

Starting with the hull, since the staging was at that height, I sanded the fresh primer with 320 grit paper.  At the hull-deck joint, where the gray hull primer overlapped the white deck primer, I mostly sanded away all the gray primer before exposing and smoothing the white beneath, but in some areas I found I had to leave some of the gray behind rather than oversand and burn through the white beneath.  I’d clean this up more once I got up to deck height anyway.

With the hull complete, I moved the staging back up to deck height, and spent the remainder of the day sanding the deck primer smooth, first the coachroof, then the remainder of the deck from the staging.  There was a mist of gray primer overspray from the hull over much of the deck, which served as a good guide coat for sanding the white primer.  By the end of a long day of sanding, I’d reached the end of the deck, but had neither time nor inclination to clean up the sanding dust before knocking off.  With a major cleanup ahead at this point anyway, I left this for next time.  There was enough dust on deck that I was sure I’d find a few areas that needed a bit more sanding attention once I’d cleaned up.

Total time billed on this job today:  7.25 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  27°, fair.   Forecast for the day:  Cloudy, then scattered rain and snow showers, 42°

Wednesday

Before starting on the finish primer for the hull, I had to remove the masking from the hull/deck joint, which protected the hull from overspray during the deck primer application, then move the staging down  a couple feet for better access to the hull.  Then, I had to do the final solvent-wash to the hull using the paint system’s proprietary solvent for this use, and tack off thereafter.

With these and the usual other preparations complete, I applied four coats of dark gray epoxy primer to the hull over the next several elapsed hours.

Total time billed on this job today:  5.25 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  29°, clear.  Forecast for the day:  Sunny, 38°

Tuesday

After final preparations including tacking off, I spray-applied three coats of epoxy finish primer to the deck and companionway hatch.  To better reach the center of the coachroof–both upper and lower sections–I began by spraying that area, standing on the port sidedeck.   I applied two relatively heavy coats to the centermost strip, including the area between the companionway hatch rails.

With good coverage from the two coats, and the ability to reach most of the area from the staging during the multiple coats ahead on the remaining deck, I removed the paper I’d put down to walk on, and proceeded with the three coats over the rest of the deck, including the center portion as much as possible.  I always wish this primer was the finished paint, because it goes on like buttah and really makes things look good.

Total time billed on this job today:  4.25 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  Light rain, 35°.  Forecast for the day:  Rain and fog, 38°

Monday

I spent the first part of the day going over the hull and deck once more, sanding the fine filler as needed by machine and hand, and retouching any other areas I found along the way.   Where the new paint would intersect the “old” paint I’d applied in the cockpit during phase 1 a year before, at the aft ends of the cabin trunk and at the traveler platform, I removed an intentional and sacrificial piece of masking to expose a bit of the shiny paint (I’d previously masked right to the edge for the high-build), and now I sanded this transition smooth and remasked to prepare for the next layers of primer.

After the sanding, I blew down and vacuumed and solvent-washed the boat and shop to remove dust.  This brought the surfaces to nearly their state of readiness for finish primer.

Afterwards I rinsed off the staging and floor to settle dust and clean these surfaces.

For finish primer, I planned to do the decks and hull in separate operations spread over two days, starting with the decks.  I no longer wanted to adjust the staging in the midst of a spraying day, as I had sometimes done in the past, and while I’d managed to spray the high-build from the deck-height staging, it was not a process I cared to repeat for the much more important finish primer coats. With the substantial dual-round of sanding after high build, I could take some liberties with its application, but not so with the finish primer.

Because the deck primer and paint would cover the outside of the molded toerail down to the hull-deck seam, I masked off the hull just beneath to protect the prepared surfaces from overspray and make prepping and applying the hull primer easier the next day.  I made a few minor masking repairs here and there on deck, then cleaned the entire deck once more with the proprietary solvent wash, leaving things ready for finish primer next time.  Because I needed to get up on deck to better reach the centermost portions of the coachroof, I added some masking to the sidedeck so I could stand there without marring the clean deck beneath; once I sprayed the center portions, I’d remove that paper and spray the rest of the deck.

Total time billed on this job today:  7 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  Fair, 12°.  Forecast for the day:  Chance of rain and snow , then rain and snow overnight, 36°

Friday

First thing, I finished up the hull sanding–the midships third (or so) of the boat on each side–along with the companionway hatch, with 220 grit paper.

With the sanding complete for now, I vacuumed the dust from the hull and deck, then solvent-washed the surfaces.

Next, I went over the entire boat carefully, using a light and (now-needed) magnifying glasses to mark with a pencil all the little pinholes, porosity, and other tiny nicks and dings that required fine filling or fine-tuning.  Small voids tend to show up in exposed laminate (especially old laminate from which the gelcoat has been sanded off), in new fairing compound, and in assorted other places that were highlighted by the fresh primer, like it was its job (it is).  On this boat, the toerails–both inside and out–were particular problem areas, with substantial areas full of porosity from oversanding that had exposed the mat-laden laminate beneath.

With all requiring attention duly marked, I mixed and applied gray epoxy fine fairing compound as needed, leaving it to cure over the weekend.

Total time billed on this job today:  5.5 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  20°, sleet, a couple inches down overnight.  Forecast for the day:  Sleet and snow, 4-8″, temperature falling to 14°

Thursday

I began the day’s sanding odyssey on deck, sanding the areas I couldn’t reach from the staging, including the upper and lower coachroof and the center part of the foredeck.  From there, I continued the deck sanding from the comfort of the staging, working my way around the whole area to sand and smooth the primer by machine and hand.

With the deck fully sanded for now, I moved on to the hull, beginning at the stern with the counter, transom, and the rest of the hull about as far forward as the after set of jackstands, or roughly about the after third of the boat; then, I sanded both sides of the bow, roughly the forward third of the hull in length, though greater in area.  With the ends done, this left me only the amidships sections of the boat–the easier parts–to finish on the morrow.

Total time billed on this job today:  7 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  40°, overcast.  Forecast for the day:  Fog and clouds, then rain late, turning to sleet and snow overnight, 41°

Wednesday

After final preparations, I sprayed three coats of epoxy high-build primer, first on the decks, then on the hull.

Total time billed on this job today:  6.25 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  28°, overcast.  Forecast for the day:  Chance of freezing rain, then chance of rain, 37°

Tuesday

I finished on the masking on deck with the cockpit area, which needed to be entirely masked off since I’d painted it during phase 1 a year or so ago, along with a few pieces of remaining hardware.

During the rest of the day, I busied myself with preparing the paint and spray equipment and all related chores, along with a final solvent wash of hull and deck, leaving things ready for high-build primer next time.

Total time billed on this job today:  5 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  -8°, clear.  Forecast for the day:  Sunny, 29°