Transom Skirt | Cleaning Up Edges

I had been worried that the white primer on the transom skirt might have a 'stepped' edge due to several coats being applied without being able to pull the masking tape and flatten the edge between coats.

So I removed the tape, like this.

There was a slight step, but the edge itself was not as crisp as expected. It looked like this.

I has used 3M 244 Professional masking tape on this edge, which has worked perfectly until now on straight edges. But clearly it does not like curves, even as slight as the transom skirt.

So I cleaned up the edge and resolved to use 3M 218 Fine Line tape when re-taping.

My plan was to apply fresh tape and then carefully sand away the tape and the primer, thereby avoiding damage to the blue gloss.

Here I am retaping with 218.

I then tried sanding the tape and the primer, but it didn't work. So I had to accept that a small step on the edge was unavoidable.

The edge was now clean and sharp so I simply re-taped and re-covered the transom, like this.

The next paint to grace the upper hull will be its first coat of white gloss. Hooray!