March 7, 2023

Further 61

Tuesday

Before beginning the final hull preparations, I checked the boat for level.  Though I’d leveled the boat at the beginning of the project, things can easily move during the work and vibrations, and indeed I needed to make some minor adjustments to bring the boat back to level.  Then, while the staging was still at deck height, I masked off the decks, covering them with plastic sheeting and taping securely all around at the toerail.  I brought the tape down to the bottom edge of the white-painted section of the sheer strake, where I’d masked earlier to spray the gloss white on the decks.

Next, I broke down the staging, removing all the brackets, planks, blocking, and other accoutrements as needed, and reset the planks at a comfortable height for working on the hull. Before setting back up, I took advantage of good hull access and installed a strip of masking paper below the waterline (which I’d marked and taped much earlier in the project).   Note that later on, I moved the forwardmost plank down one notch so it was even with the others, as I found it was too high where I’d set it initially.

Now I had to sand the exposed strips of high build and finish primer near the gunwales all around, in order to ease the hard edges left from previous taping and blend the two primers into the unpainted sections below.  This was all hand work and didn’t take too long.

Throughout the rest of the day, I finished up all the other details required to prepare for paint, including solvent-washing the hull a couple times (first to remove dust from the light sanding at the gunwale, then again with the final, proprietary solvent), preparing paint and spray equipment, masking off two bronze through hulls in the counter, and sundry other tasks, leaving the boat ready for high build primer in the morning.

Total time billed on this job today: 7.25 hours

0600 Weather Observation: Clear, 25°, dew point 16°. Forecast for the day: Mostly cloudy, slight chance of snow or rain showers, 37°