Painting the Hull

I've a proponent of System 3 WR-LPU (Water Reducible Linear Poly Urethane) since it is water soluble easy to roll or spray and provides very nice result -- most of the time.

I prepared the hull with high build primer meant for this kind of paint and sanded it smooth.  So far so good.

Then I sprayed the "Mercer Green" color coats.  Had a few runs but nothing I couldn't take care of.  So far ok. 

Then sprayed the gloss coats.  Ugh! Blushing!  Very bad bad blushing.  Crap!  Called the System 3 rep.  Said I would have to wet sand to bring out the gloss.  More sanding... so sad.

Started with 600 grit.  So far this is what the boat looks like.  A lot of the blotchiness in the photos are because of dust from the wet sand.  It does look a lot better but I've got about 4 more circuits to go before I get to 2000 grit.

After that I will use 3000 grit rubbing compounds and then finishing compound with wax.

The initial run seem good and it's getting better with each pass so I think I'm going to be ok.

Hours this session: 24

Hours total: 585

Some Fairing and Anti-Fouling

This is the third stitch and glue boat that I've built and by far the most ambitious.  One thing my short span as a boat builder has taught me is that no matter how careful you are.  No matter how well you sand.  No mater what precautions you take there is always some filling and sanding to do right before you put the first coat of paint on.

I had a few divots and empty spots at the aft end of the keel that I filled with fairing compound.

On the aft port hull bottom I had some "starved" areas that didn't get a good epoxy fill.  These areas I simply filled with epoxy and putt peel-ply over the top to reduce the amount of sanding.

In the area above I had sanded through the weave.  I cut an oversized patch of fiberglass and epoxied it in place and again covered it with peel-ply to try to make it feather in.  In the end this worked exceptionally well and the area only needed a little touch up sanding... maybe 5 minutes worth.

This is a ding I put in it when I didn't wait for my sander to stop before putting it down.  This put a nice cresent shaped arc into the wood.  Filled this with fairing compound and it's like it never happened.

So I didn't get any pictures of me striking the water line.  I did have some difficulty with this.  My laser level is kinda a cheap one and it wouldn't shoot very far down the curved hull.  I ended up using a combination of a home made water level and the laser.  I would strike points on the hull about 6' apart and use these points as center points to mount the laser and then level the laser and shoot to each side.  In the end it worked VERY well and I don't think I could have gotten it much closer.

As you can see the Interlux 33 went on very nice and even.

The automotive fine detailing tape I used to mask the bottom really did a good job at keeping out the bleed through

My only mistake is this little drip I got on the side of the hull.  A little sanding took this off nicely.

I did this early in the morning but it's still summer in FL and this stuff dried very quickly.

Hours this session: 10

Hours total: 561