Lackey Sailing | Further 54

February 27, 2023

Further 54

Monday

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.