Topsides | Paint Stripping

With the cockpit stripped of paint it was time to start on the topsides, cabin and forward deck well.

I started with the the forward deck itself. Here it is half stripped.

I am using a small, circular Bahco scraper to clean up the fillets.

Here the port Dorade box and the deck well have been stripped and the cabin wall is half stripped.

Before I started on the cabin roof and the companionway hood I covered the entrance to the cabin to prevent splashes of paint stripper. Like this.

In this pic the port cabin roof is half stripped.

I taped over the portholes in case stripper got into the cabin and spoiled my paint job!

This is the forward deck well, fully stripped.

The mirror is useful for seeing under the rails, and inside the upper breast hook. Like this.

At last I finished stripping the port side of the upper hull, like this.

I then moved on to the starboard topsides, as here.

You can see the patches that I made to fill the holes for the ventilators which I cut in the wrong place. Oops.

This will at least give me an opportunity to properly fair the patches, which are far from flat and even...

Finally the whole of the upper hull was stripped. Here it is seen from astern.

This is the forward deck well.

And lastly here is a view of the starboard topsides.

I will now have to strip inside the companionway hood and the seatback lockers, neither of which will be easy. I am not looking forward to that, but afterwards we will be preparing for new paint. Which will be wonderful!

We are making progress, albeit slow.

Cockpit | Paint Stripping

It was time to start stripping all the old paint from the top of the boat, so I broke out the paint stripper and got stuck in.

First I stripped the deck, seatbacks and tops, and the rear cabin wall. They are seen here part completed.

You can see that the companionway has been masked off to protect the interior from paint stripper, as have the lazarette hatches and the centreboard pendant cleat.

The footwell was next, as here. The drain holes are plugged with BlueTack to prevent paint stripper egress.

Next came the companionway. I masked off the drop board retainer to protect the interior. 

The transom skirt was next.

Then the hatches were unmasked.

The interior was protected with polythene sheeting, like this.

And then the hatch surrounds were stripped, as here.

And here are the hatch surrounds with the protective sheeting removed.

The footwell drain hole plugs were then removed. Here I am cleaning up the holes with a small round scraper.

Finally the areas where the main sheet block support pad and the centreboard pendant cleat are located were stripped. Like this.

That's the cockpit stripped clean, with the exception of the seatback lockers.

I am expecting them to be difficult to access and fully strip at the rear of the lockers, where the boom gallows support block gets in the way.

So I will now start stripping the cabin and forward deck, working on the seatback lockers in parallel and taking as long as required to strip them thoroughly.

Time for one of these.

Onwards and upwards!

Paint Blisters | Another Test

If you have been following this build for the last couple of years you will be aware that all the white paint on the boat blistered when exposed to water (i.e. rain) when it was moved onto its trailer late in 2023.

Nobody, including the paint manufacturer, could tell me why. But I eventually worked it out.

At least I think I did...

The technical instructions for the paint tell us to use the manufacturer's own specific thinners to clean brushes and rollers.

I didn't do that. I used a water-based brush cleaner. I meticulously cleaned my brushes and rollers with this stuff, and reused them time and time again.

In doing so I am sure that I impregnated them with whatever solvent is in the brush cleaner, and they in turn contaminated the paint.

When the paint became wet the water caused the contaminant to reactivate, blistering the paint.

It only affected the white paint. The blue paint was fine, so it's clearly something in the white gloss that is intolerant.

I decided to test my theory while there was still plenty of the old paint on the boat, and poured a few cups of water into the forward deck well.

I left it overnight, and sure enough all the paint covered by the water had blistered.

Here is a close up pic of the blisters.

Horrible!

Here is another pic with a ruler for scale.

You can see that the blisters are tiny, but can you imagine what the boat would look like covered in a rash like this?

I can, and that's why I am repainting with Epifanes!

Topsides | Paint Strippng

Work at last began on stripping the topsides paint. I am using the same techniques, tools and materials that I deployed on the undersides, so see previous posts for detailed descriptions if interested.

Here I have started work on the port cockpit deck and sides.

I think it will be a lengthy but relatively straightforward process, so I'm not too concerned about making progress at this stage.

The Centreboard Now Drops!

When we moved the boat back onto its build cradle I took great pains to make sure it was located where the build manual says it should sit, which is with the centreboard slot exactly between the two cradle end pieces.

As a result the centreboard now drops to the floor, which it never did before. This indicates that it was too far to the rear of the cradle the last time we did this.

Here is the board touching the floor.

This is useful to know, because I can easily touch up a couple of dings on the forward edge of the board before putting her on the trailer.

Getting Ready For Paint Stripping

Before any paint stripping could take place in the cockpit it was necessary to ensure no stripper could drip or leak into the interior or onto the transom.

So I used plastic sheeting to seal up any vulnerable areas.

Here the lazarette hatch openings and the rudder slot have been covered up.

Both drain holes in the footwell have been plugged with BlueTack, like this.

Lastly the companionway, ratchet block support pad and centreboard pendant were sealed off, like this.

We are now ready for stripping!

Making The Keel Support Block

I needed to support the keel at the stern of the boat so that I could safely work in the cockpit. Otherwise it could tilt under my weight, which would not be good.

So I made a support block. Here it is.

Some foam padding glued in place with double sided tape prevents damage to the paintwork.

It is now safe to work in the cockpit.