Build Cradle | Reassembly

When we moved the boat out of the workshop onto its trailer I dismantled the build cradle.

I put the two cradle ends behind my workbench and put the spreaders and support blocks in the scrap pile.

I did consider scrapping the cradle ends but thought if I ever needed to put PocketShip back inside for rework I would need them, so I kept them.

That was a very sensible decision, because we will soon need another build cradle when we flip her upright again!

The spreaders had long since been cut up and recycled so I made a new pair. Here I am cutting them to length.

I searched through all of my many boxes of scrap and found all the support blocks from the original cradle.

Here are the new spreaders and the old blocks.

I drilled the spreaders for screws using the pillar drill to ensure the holes were perpendicular, like this.

Then I took all the parts outside and stood the cradle ends on a pair of tables.

All parts were marked up to ensure they were correctly reassembled, like this.

I carefully screwed all the pieces back together, using a big roofing square to make sure everything was at right angles.

This is the reassembled cradle.

I will fit the wheels when we flip the boat.

Lastly I removed the spreaders and put the parts safely back inside.

That was fun!

Dorade Boxes | Stripping Paint

I had decided to strip the interior of the Dorade boxes while the boat was upside down.

I just thought it would be easier that way, and it would not matter if stripper and paint leaked through the drain holes onto the already stripped upper side panels.

I made up a varied tool set of scrapers, brushes and scourers to do the job.

Here they are.

As usual I used an eco-friendly, water-based paint stripper to do the job. It worked just fine. See previous posts for details.

It turned out that a stainless steel scouring pad was the most effective way of removing paint.

Here we are working inside the cabin.

One bucket of water is for washing the scourer, and the other is for rinsing the sponge used to wipe off the dissolved paint.

The mirror is vital for seeing into and around corners.

Tedious and messy but not that difficult, and it's done now so not something to dread at a future date.

Portholes | Stripping Caulk

I posted last May about removing the portlights when the boat was back in the workshop for repainting.

One of the portlights was very difficult to remove.

This was because I had used old caulk to seal this particular portlight in place. The caulk had partly cured inside the tube and although it dispensed easily, it set to a hard and inflexible consistency which refused to release the portlight.

I eventually prised it loose with an old screwdriver but this left a thick, solid ring of hardened caulk on the inside and the outside.

It looked like this.

No solvents that I tried had any effect, so it would have to be cut away.

I used a small slim-bladed pocket knife and a small Bahco scraper with a new blade to do this.

Here they are.

It was painstaking work, taking care not to damage the hull but also removing every trace of the old caulk.

It was successful eventually, and a wipe with some solvent left a clean surface ready for paint.

Upper Side Panels | Paint Stripping

I pondered on what other work I could do while PocketShip was still upside down, and immediately realised it would be easier to strip the upper side panels now rather than wait for the hull to be righted.

In fact, I should have done this while stripping the side and bottom panels. It would have saved the time and effort of masking off.

Nonetheless, it had to be done so I set about covering the newly painted hull to protect it from paint stripper and the resultant mess.

I did this with lightweight polythene dust sheeting, carefully cut to fit. This is it.

The material folds out to give a sheet two metres wide. 

This is a view of the fully covered hull from the rear.

I have only taped the sheeting to the rails and to itself to join the two metre wide strips.

I have found that masking tape almost always leaves a mark or a stain if left in contact with paint for any longer than is absolutely necessary.

This even applies to the expensive specialised tapes recommended by expert marine painters, so beware ...

We don't want any tape marks on our lovely new paint!

This is the stripping kit.

I'm using water-based, eco-friendly paint stripper and a sharp Bahco scraper. See previous posts for further information on how this works - it's very effective.

This is the starboard upper side panel during stripping.

And this it afterwards.

This is the port side, after stripping.

You can see that all the paint has been removed, with no scratches or tram lines from the scraper.

This is much easier than sanding the paint off - it's virtually impossible to do that without sanding through the fibreglass sheathing.

That's nearly all that can be done before the flip.

My plan is to strip inside the Dorade boxes while the boat is upside down. I think it will be easier that way.

We will see!

Lower Hull | Touching Up & Prettying

With the lower hull now fully painted and varnished, it was time to apply the final cosmetic touches to make it really pretty.

I had experienced some minor bleeding between the white and blue areas of gloss paint, particularly at the transom but also also where the masking tape crossed over the chine.

So I masked up the errant patches. Here is a corner which needs blue paint.

And here is one which needs white paint.

This is the blue stripe after touching up and pulling tape.

That's a nice crisp line now.

I didn't mask off the bow eye and it got covered in paint, like this.

I carefully scraped off the mess, so it looked nice again. As here.

I think that's it for the lower hull. Time to schedule the flip and to do whatever else we can in the meantime.

Transom | Varnish & More Tape Damage ...

I varnished the transom in parallel with the rub rails.

In theory this should have been straightforward and the final phase of refinishing the underside of PocketShip, but as we shall see I encountered a few problems with the paint ... again!

First I wet sanded the old varnished surface using a P400 grit. Like this.

I then masked off the painted surfaces using 3M 218 tape, as I have been doing since finding that the vinyl tape I had previously used was damaging paint when removed.

This is the transom, taped up for varnish.

I applied the first coat of varnish and pulled the tape. Unfortunately the tape tore off some of the blue and white gloss.

This is the damage to the white stripe.

And this is what happened to the blue stripe.

I left plenty of time for the paint to cure before applying the tape, so I was somewhat disappointed about this latest issue with masking tape.

I wet sanded the damaged areas to flatten the surface, ready to be touched up or repainted.

I then taped up for the second coat of varnish using 3M 244 High Precision tape, which is a lower tack than the 218. This is it.

This works well. It doesn't give quite as sharp an edge as the 218, but it doesn't damage fresh paint. It is the most precise tape in the 3M professional decorator's tape, so it will have to be used.

I wet sanded the varnish with a P400 grit and applied the second coat. This is what it looked like when I pulled the tape.

You can see the flattened out damage on the blue stripe. It was obvious that the blue and white stripes would need to be repainted, but I hadn't thought about how to do it at this stage.

Again I wet sanded the varnished transom with a P400 grit, feather edging it with the painted stripes.

Epifanes recommend doing this between coats, and it worked really well on the rub rails. This is how it looked.

The third coat of varnish was then applied. Here it is before the tape was pulled.

And here it is after.

It was starting to look really good, apart from the damaged gloss paint. I am thinning the varnish with 10% Epifanes thinners on all coats, as I did on the rub rails, and it dries with no sags or brush marks.

I applied two more coats of varnish in this way.

Ready for the seventh and final coat of varnish, I decided to wet sand the whole of the blue and white stripes at the same time as the varnish. Again a P400 grit was used. Like this.

I then touched up the damaged areas with white and blue gloss.

My plan was to completely repaint the stripes before applying the final coat of varnish. Here I have taped up for blue gloss.

I am using the 3M 218 tape here, because it doesn't damage the surface of the varnish. It dries to a harder finish than the paint.

I applied two coats of blue gloss, wet sanding between coats. I added 10% Epifanes Easy Flow to the paint, and it flowed beautifully and dried with no brush marks.

Then I did the same with the white stripe. It only needed one coat to cover well.

This is what the transom now looked like.

So we were now ready for the final coat of varnish. This is the transom taped up in readiness.

And here it is with varnish applied.

And, finally, here is the finished product. Looking very nice indeed.

It was annoying that I had experienced more tape damage, but I now know to use the low tack 244 tape on painted surfaces wherever possible.

It doesn't give as sharp an edge as the 218, but it's plenty good enough. If you didn't know which tape had been used you really couldn't tell the difference.

So that's it! The entire underside of the boat has been reworked and refinished and is now ready to be turned right way up again.

It's still pretty cold and wet here in the UK, so I will wait until the weather improves before summoning a crew to flip PocketShip ... again!

Rub Rails | Varnish

With the sides of the hull finished I was keen to varnish the rub rails and the transom.

First I machined-sanded the rails with a P120 grit and finished them by hand with P180.

This is what they looked like.

That was better! They were quite dirty and marked after months of work on the hull.

Time to break out the varnish. I had again switched brand to Epifanes, and chose their single part, traditional yacht varnish.

It has a very high reputation. This is it.

I followed the product instructions to the letter.

On bare wood they say to apply three heavily thinned coats to penetrate the grain. These coats are thinned with 50%, 25% and 15% of Epifanes thinners respectively.

So I did that. It really did sink in and seal the grain.

We are then required to apply at least four more coats. I thinned all four coats with 10% thinners, and it flowed and cured beautifully.

This is the port rub rail after it's final coat.

The rails look fabulous. The varnish has cured with no brush marks at all.

Mrs Boatbuilder really liked them. "Wow, they really pop!", she declared.

I'm so pleased I switched to Epifanes!