Topside Panels, Seatback Tops & Transom Skirt | Final Coat

I was very happy to be applying the final coat of gloss to the topsides, because that meant that repainting the upper hull was complete. Such joy!

I started at the rear of the port topside panel and worked my way forwards and around the bow, painting the upper breast hook en route, and then down the starboard side to the stern.

Lastly I painted the transom skirt, completing the upper hull.

This what it looked like.

And is the transom skirt.

And here is the view from port with the tape pulled.

Lastly this is the transom skirt with the tape pulled.

Looking good!

Now I can think seriously about refitting all the hardware, but I must finish painting the rudder and inside the Dorade boxes.

I do believe the end is in sight...

Companionway Hood & Cabin Roof | Final Coat

I left the seatbacks and the rear cabin wall to cure for a couple of days and wet sanded the overlap onto the cabin roof and the seatback tops.

Using a felt roller sleeve I then applied the fifth and final coat of gloss to the companionway hood and the cabin roof.

This is what it looked like, viewed from starboard.

No bad at all! The felt roller certainly achieves a better finish than the foam.

The rear face of the tabernacle got its final coat at the same time, like this.

Lastly I pulled the tape from the toe rails, revealing the sapele for the first time in months!

Here is the starboard rail.

This feels like real progress, at last.

Rudder | White Gloss & Tape Damage

With time on my hands I started to apply the second coat of white gloss to the rudder.

First I wet sanded the first coat on the whole rudder with a P400 grit. Like this.

I covered the lower pivot eye with Blu Tack to mask it off from paint. Here it is.

Then I applied masking tape for a second coat, as here.

I used a wooden spoon to burnish the edges of the tape, to stop any bleeding.

When painting the cockpit I found that application with a foam roller sleeve improved as it became fully loaded with paint.

This meant initial coverage was patchy, because it was not getting enough paint onto the surface and I was losing the wet edge too easily.

I decided to experiment with a short pile felt roller, which I already had but had not used.

This is them.

Here it is in action with a good brush for tipping out.

That worked well. Here is the rudder with its second coat of white gloss.

No brush marks or patches. Excellent!

While the paint was flowing I gave the interior and the sides of the tabernacle their final coat of gloss.

It looked good, like this.

And finally I pulled the masking tape on the rudder and this happened.

The blue gloss peeled off with the tape. I was surprised because I had used the low tack professional tape that I learned to used when painting the undersides and transom.

Maybe I didn't leave the blue paint long enough to cure. Who knows...

It's not the end of the world and it has happened so many time before that I know how to fix the damage.

Onwards and upwards! 

Cockpit | Refinishing

When the paint in the cockpit had cured I inspected the finish, and was immediately disappointed.

There were small but visible curtains on the rear cabin wall and seatbacks, and I had lost the wet edge in several places. The shiny gloss sheen highlighted it all beautifully!

The cockpit deck wasn't perfect, but it would be mostly covered by the non-slip finish so that didn't matter.

I thought about it for a while and decided to refinish the seatbacks and cabin wall, as I did with the forward deck well. It's tedious in the extreme but I only want to do this once...

So I left the deck as it was and wet sanded the seatbacks and the cabin wall - again.

This is the port seatback being sanded.

When that was done I taped the cabin roof and seatback tops to achieve an overlap across the edges. Like this.

Lastly I applied a fresh coat of paint as carefully as I could, and left it to cure.

This is the cockpit with tape pulled.

It's not perfect bit it is much better, and it is certainly good enough.

So that's the cockpit finished. Hooray!

Rudder | 1st Coat of Blue Gloss

While waiting for the white gloss to cure I gave the rudder its first coat of blue gloss.

Here it is, all masked off with top quality tape.

I masked off the upper pivot eye with Blu Tack so it would not get covered in paint. Here it is.

That will make painting around it much easier.

Then I applied blue gloss thinned with 5% Easy Flow conditioner, using just a brush.

This is what it looked like.

Not too bad for a first coat! I pulled the tape and when dry moved the rudder inside to harden. 

Here it is.

The blue gloss is more opaque than the white and flows much more easily. If and when I build another boat, I will not paint it white!

Forward Deck, Cockpit & Drop Boards | Final Coat (2)

It was now time to paint the next area of the upper hull - the entire cockpit.

First I wet sanded the overlap from the footwell, like this.

Then the (hopefully) final coat was applied to the cockpit deck, seatbacks, rear cabin wall and transom.

It looked like this.

The forward deck well was repainted at the same time. Here it is.

That looked a lot better than the first attempt.

Lastly the companionway drop boards got the final coat on their second side. As here.

We will see how that lot turns out. I will leave it for 48 hours to properly cure.

Forward Deck Well | Refinishing

I left the newly applied paint in the footwell and the forward deck well to cure. It took 48 hours to fully harden.

Then I inspected the results.

The footwell was fine, but all was not well with the forward deck area.

The deck itself had missed patches and brush marks where I had not been careful enough.

Knowing that I would not be happy to leave it like that, I decided to reprepare it and paint it again.

The vertical surfaces were all fine, so I just burnished them with a medium abrasive nylon pad.

Here I am wet sanding the deck itself with a P400 grit.

This was tedious, but I have no intention of doing it again so it has to be right!