Interior primed

This weekend a few days of good weather gave me an opportunity to get the interior of the boat primed. I trailered the boat to my brother's house on Sunday where we hooked up his compressor. We sprayed on two coats of the water based epoxy primer. I left the boat there until Tuesday to allow it to thoroughly dry before bringing it home. I also allowed it to sit today to give the epoxy more time to cure as the temperatures have been cool this week. Tomorrow I start sanding the primer, this will be (hopefully) the last major sanding job on the hull before it is launched. The photos give an idea of the boats final appearance as the primer color is very similar to the color of the finish coat.

On Solid Ground

On Monday night Tropical Ida came through, The building shelter did not survive. The frame stayed in place but the poly tarp panels were shredded and tattered. On Friday I disassembled the tent. The open area gave me my first opportunity to photograph the boat from the side. Later that evening my brother helped me move the boat underneath the carport where I will finish it. While he was here we taped off an area under the rub rail for the sheer stripe which I painted this weekend. I thought that would be the final task before flipping the hull to paint the inside, but the paint on the transom was damaged in the storm by a flapping tent panel and will be repaired this week.

Top Coat on

This past week I finished the graphite coat, applying a coat Mon., Tues. and Wed. afternoons. Wednesday night after the last coat had time to stiffen I removed the masking and tape. I allowed it to cure Thursday and sanded the edges on Friday. I then washed and dried the hull, wiped it with denatured alcohol and began taping and masking again. That afternoon I rolled on the first coat of paint, Petit Easypoxy Pearl Gray. I applied the second and third coats yesterday and today. I began painting at noon to give dew in the tent time to evaporate. I am going to let the paint harden for a few days then mask the boat so that I paint the sheer stripe below the rub rail.

Last round of sanding

Finally, the outer hull has been sanded for the last time. This weekend I sanded the primer that was applied last week. I spent 2 days sanding the boat by hand. This morning I washed the boat with dish soap, towel dried it and gave it wipe down with denatured alcohol. I then began taping a line that I hope will be near the waterline for the graphite epoxy mixture that I am applying to the bottom. Three more layers of tape were applied over the first layer, each one staggered by 1/4" so that each coat will extend past the previous. By doing this I hope to avoid having a high ridge of epoxy to sand down before painting. A layer of plastic was then taped to the boat to keep stray drops and runs of black epoxy off of the sides of the hull. I took a break for dinner and rolled on the first coat, finishing at sunset. In a few hours I will go out and remove the first tape layer before the epoxy completely hardens.

Primed at Last

After my last update 2 weeks ago we had two wet weeks of weather which made the inside of the tent very mucky (just like the early spring). Last weekend our first strong cold front came through and we had 25 -30 knot north winds for 2 days. This wind proved to be too much for the tent roof so Sunday I covered the tent with a large tarp to cover the gaps. I was also able to sand the epoxy coats that I applied the previous weekend. Yesterday I was planning to wash the sanding dust off of the hull and begin priming but a problem with the water main forced the city to shut our water from 8:00 am to 3:30 pm. I washed the hull in the afternoon but did not have time to do any painting. This morning I gave the hull a quick wipe down with denatured alcohol and waited for the tent to warm up as morning temps were in the mid 50's. By noon the temperature in the tent was approaching 80 so I rolled on the first coat. by 3:30 it was no longer tacky so I applied the second coat. Tomorrow after the tent warms up I will apply the third and final coat. I am going to give the primer a few days to cure completely then begin sanding in prep for the top coat.

Fairing complete

I spent all of last week sanding the fairing putty I slathered on last weekend. Today I completed this round of sanding and rolled a seal coat of epoxy on shortly before taking this photo. A few hours later I rolled on a second coat. Tomorrow I will start sanding again, but it should go quicker as I only have to scuff the surface to give the primer something to grip.

Since my last update not much has happened. I had the inside of the boat ready to prime but a heavy love-bug hatch postponed painting. A rainy September also slowed work down. A few weeks ago I flipped the over again to begin fairing the bottom for paint. Today I completely covered the hull with a coat of fairing putty (as seen above) and started the sanding process. Before I spread the putty over the hull I filled the fiberglass weave over the keel and bilge runners with a mixture of cabosil and West fillet blend. This makes a tougher (and tougher to sand) covering for the parts of the bottom likely to take the most abuse.