Grey Primer | First Coat

The first coat of grey primer went on really well. It's much more dense and opaque than the white primer, and flows out nicely to cure flat.

This is the first coat on the transom.

And here is the starboard side view.

She is starting to look like a boat again!

Painting | Tools of Choice

I have by now had plenty of practice at painting a boat, much of it unsuccessful! But I thought it might be worth recording what I have learned thus far regarding tools.

Brushes for tipping out are crucial for obtaining a good finish. Here are my two current favourites.

The wide brush from ANZA on the left is specifically designed for tipping out and was recommended to me by a paint vendor. It's OK, but I get better results from the smaller one on the right, from Crown.

Both are premium quality synthetic brushes, which seems to be the way to go.

A top quality roller sleeve is essential for rolling paint. This is what I am now using.

The concave black foam sleeves are from ROTA, and are very good.

I recently discovered that I should be using a broad stirrer to stir my paint, rather than a cane. This is what I am now using.

It certainly makes it easier!

Pouring paint from a large can has always been a challenge and I invariably make a mess, so I have devised a disposable scoop made from a card mixing cup to transfer paint from the can. This is it.

With practice it's mess free!

And lastly but not least, I have been using trial and error to find the optimum percentage for thinning Epifanes paint.

I started by just guessing - that didn't work. Then I tried plastic syringes - they don't like the thinners and fall apart.

Finally I purchased a glass measuring cylinder. This is it.

It measures up to 100 ml in 1 ml increments, and is perfect for getting precise doses of thinners. Love it!

Grey Primer | Taping Up & Masking Off

When the white primer was more or less finished I taped up and masked off for the grey primer.

Here is what it looked like.

I rather enjoy doing this but I find it really difficult to get a perfectly fair curve with the tape, particularly on the vertical sides.

This is a close up of the boot top.

You can just make out 'wobbles' in the tape edges. It doesn't matter for the primer but I have to improve this for the gloss.

And here is the transom, ready for grey paint.

Looking good!

White Primer | Pulling Tape & Feathered Edges

When the white primer had fully cured I sanded it with P220 and pulled the masking tape. 

This is what it looked like.

This is the transom.

It is so much easier to paint both sides and the transom at the same time.

However, I got a surprise when pulling the blue masking tape. The tape pulled off a piece of fibreglass cloth, like this.

Exploration with a knife revealed that an old patch had clearly failed to bond properly, and had failed.

Oh dear. I sanded off the loose material, leaving this.

I will have to apply another patch or simply seal the substrate properly with clear resin.

Then I carefully feathered the edges of the primer with a P220 grit to remove the 'step' and make it flush with the substrate.

This is what it looked like.

Next is grey primer. Hooray!

White Primer | Sanding & More Primer

When the third coat of white primer was cured I sanded it with P220 grit to see what it looked like.

Here I am sanding the starboard bottom panel.

And this is the same panel after sanding.

It wasn't too bad but clearly needed more primer, so I applied two more coats.

This is the final coat on the starboard side.

That should do the trick!

New Paint | Test Piece

Mindful of the horror of the original paint blistering when it got wet, I finished a test piece and put it outside on the trailer to see how the weather affected it.

This is the upper drop board.

Like the centreboard, it received three coats of primer which was sanded with a P220 grit. Then five coats of gloss, wet sanded P400 between coats.

It has been out in the sun and rain for a couple of weeks and it looks great. I think this is going to work.

White Primer | Application

Excitement was running high when I broke out the white primer!

Epifanes recommend that the primer be thinned from 5 to 10%, depending on the conditions and the experience of the painter.

I rather over did it. Here is the first coat on the starboard side.

You can see how patchy it is. And here is the result of adding too much thinners - curtains on the keel nose.

And again at the rear of the keel.

Yuk.

I then tried 5% thinners, and found that the paint dragged. So I tried 10% and that seemed to work well.

This is the third coat on the port side.

Looking good!

White Primer | Taping Up & Masking Off

After installing the centreboard I put the boat back onto the sawhorses at the stern because it was so much more stable than the dolly, and at a good working height for painting.

Then I used 19mm 3M vinyl lining tape to mask up for the white primer.

Here is the view from starboard.

That drill bench is always in the way!

And here is the view of the transom.

I have covered the varnished area with polythene sheeting to prevent staining.

Primer is next!

Fibreglass Patches

I had noticed at some point a couple of patches of bare wood which I had missed when repairing the damage caused by sanding through fibreglass cloth when stripping the bottom.

So I made patches and 'glassed them in place. Here is one on the keel.

And here is the other one on the bow.

They were sanded and feather edged, ready for paint. We're getting there!

Centreboard | Reinstallation

I left the repainted centreboard in the house for a couple of days to fully cure before reinstallation. Here it is, in company with the upper drop board.

I then considered how to carry out the reinstallation and immediately found I had a problem.

I had previously raised the stern of the boat onto a pair of sawhorses when levelling the keel for marking up the waterline, so it was no longer moveable on its wheeled dollies.

And where it was situated - right beneath the garage door frame - meant there was insufficient headroom to get the board back into its case.

So it had to go back onto the stern dolly so I could move it. Here I am using a pair of bottle jacks - one on each side - to raise the hull so I could withdraw the sawhorses. The dolly is already in place with blocks to take the weight of the hull when it is lowered.

In this pic the hull is partly lowered onto the dolly by removing some of the wooden blocks.

And here the hull is back on the dolly and moveable once more.

I moved the boat so I had headroom to insert the centreboard and connected the pendant. Here it is knotted inside the hole in the board.

Having tried and failed to cut rope with knives, I purchased a hot knife. It works brilliantly. Here it is.

It will be invaluable when I get to fitting out again.

Here is the centreboard, attached via the pendant and ready to be installed.

This is one job that you really can't do single handed, so Mrs Boatbuilder was drafted in to pass the board up to me perched on top of the hull.

And here it is reinstalled, with a temporary rod through the pivot hole and held up out of the case by a wooden dowel. This makes it easy to manoeuvre the board into position to accept the pivot rod.

Next I pushed the temporary rod through the keel and inserted the new pivot pin, tapping it into place.

The pin was then sealed permanently in place with thickened epoxy resin, retained in the hole by a pair of plastic cards and a clamp. like this.

That's it! Next job is painting the hull again.