Week 23:Painting has begun.

There are times when you go from one stage to the next. This weekend was one. Sunday the task was to tape the deck for painting. We needed to tape over all the holes for the hardware so they would not get clogged with paint. We also had to paper all the openings; ports, hatches, instruments, you name it. Hundreds of little squares of tape plus paper and more tape until we got the deck covered. This took all day.

The deck has been sanded. You can see spots of putty that were used to fill imperfections

This shows the little tape squares. — This shows the little tape squares, nine of the hundreds that we covered.

Primed, Gypsy is all one color. — After: Primed, Gypsy is all one color, a very different boat.

Monday we helped with painting the boat. Nina mixed the paint and I kept the hoses out of the fresh paint while Tom sprayed the deck. We ended up using six gallons of primer. Nina got to mix it up one quart at a time. Once mixed, the paint had about a 15 minute time limit before it started to cure. The primer paint goes on thick and it fills in minor imperfections in the surface.

After painting, we thought about working on the mast but it was too hot. Nina got the spinnaker track off and the mounting bracket for the windex and decided to call it a day. Bill got his moment of excitement after we discovered wasps starting to make a nest in the boom. He stuffed paper in the ends and made it away unscathed.

3 thoughts on “Week 23:Painting has begun.”