October 22, 2020

Skeedeen Phase 6-19

Wednesday

I took a day away from the project while I waited for the transom base coats to cure sufficiently; I couldn’t sand or mask over the fresh paint for at least 24 hours.  Now, having well eclipsed the required curing time, I got to work sanding flat and smooth the transom base, using 320 grit wet-dry paper.  I removed all traces of gloss and spray texture from the surface.

Next, I masked off the boottop on the rest of the hull (I’d previously done so on the transom), using the molded scribe line as a guide.

At the transom, we wanted a narrow border of hull color at the outboard edges, to provide a natural stopping point for the faux wood finish and to simulate the typical thickness of hull planking as would normally be seen were this a wooden boat.  I eventually determined that around 3/4″ was the right-size border for this boat, and marked and masked accordingly.  Studying photos of the boat with the swim platform still installed, I determined where to mask the lower edge of the faux portion (just below the top level of the platform), and masked across the transom at that level.  Then, I filled in the field with masking paper to protect it from overspray.

I rounded out the day with the normal final preparations, including another floor washdown, solvent-washing the hull with the proprietary solvent, and preparing paint and equipment for the hull painting next time.

Total time billed on this job today:  4.5 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  48°, mainly clear.  Forecast for the day:  Mostly sunny, 65°