Some painting complete

I have finished painting the foredeck, the anchor pulpit, the handrails, the foredeck side of the Portuguese bridge, and the bulwarks. Pretty much, all of the fore deck is finished with paint. I did this on Friday, and due to some family things I have to do this weekend, I won't be able to finish the wheel house side of the Portuguese bridge and the outer deck of the wheelhouse until sometime this week. The weather forecast for this week is on the stormy side, so I'll be able to take off work the 1/2 day I need to finish painting what I did not get finished on Friday.

The fore deck was a lot of work to paint, and used about a gallon of paint. The paint mix is 5:1, so in terms of product used, I sprayed about 1.25 gallons. That might not seem like a lot of paint, but it is a fair amount given the paint type. The fore deck and handrails is a really cut up area to paint, and was a pretty physical day for me. At the end of the day, I was feeling the workout. This is one of those deals that you can't stop once you get started, so no matter how worn out you get, it's best if you suck it up and finish.

Because I decided to paint the hand rails, I had to scaffold the outside. I have a rolling scaffold I used, but that required many trips up and down the scaffold as I moved around the boat. The rolling scaffold does not fit between the boat and the barn wall, so I had to set up a 16' walk board and a ladder to do that area. Slow, thoughtful movements are the key when working 12' off of the ground lugging around a full paint pot, air hoses and safety clothing. My basic paint plan was the same as all the other painting I did which involved getting a decent first layer of paint on the surfaces, letting it tack up a bit, then come back and apply a second and third coat. With the handrails, the exposed frames of the bulwark, the bulwark cap and underside, the anchor pulpit, hatch, and cabin ventilation tubes, there was a lot of trimming in that had to be done. All of the fixtures that I just mentioned not only required trimming, they also added some square footage. Most of this area was painted at odd angles, on my hands and knees, bent over while avoiding the roof truss's. I now have a better understanding on why certain boats are more expensive to build than others, and why items such as handrails, bulwarks, and the Portuguese bridge add costs to a job. I'm so glad this job is completed.

You'll notice a cubby hole on the port side of the anchor pulpit. That recess is for my wash down hose connection and a connection for an air hose. I'll explain the air hose connection at some other time, but I felt like I wanted an air hose on the bow of the boat for maintenance.

The handrail is made of 1 1/2" stainless steel with 1" stanchions welded to the bulwark cap. I had intended to hand polish this rail and leave it as shiny stainless. Like I said in earlier post, I had serious doubt about being able to get the polishing job done well enough where the handrail would not be a constant battle with rust. I think I made the right choice in painting it. I'm also happy knowing that when the rail gets chipped, it will not rust quickly due to the stainless.

The paint scheme I'm doing on the boat is pretty similar to the picture at the top of the blog. Because of the Portuguese bridge's white color, I carried that paint line around the outside of the hull. It's nice seeing some more shiny paint on the hull as I look up at it from the shop floor.

Like I said above, I'll finish inside the Portuguese bridge this week. Now that all this paint work is completed, I can get some more finish work done while the boat is in the barn. I'll be able to install the hatch, install the dorade boxes, install the Portuguese bridge door leading to the foredeck, and install the wood cap on the Portuguese bridge. I'll also be able to install the deck plates for the two water fills, and the gray water pump out station for the 50 gallon tank located in the guest cabin. I will install the bulkhead fittings for the anchor winch and the door on the pulpit.

I'm not to happy about the quality of the finish on the deck. There was a fair amount of grit on the deck from the other painting, so I'll have to take a close look at a re paint. My goal was to get the deck protected with that tough paint I'm using, and that's what I did. I plan on doing a non skid deck treatment, but that will not happen until launch time. Given the additional coatings I will be doing on the deck, I think I'll let it go until launch now that it has two coats of acrylic urethane and it can now handle weather and finish work.