First Coat of Finish Paint on the Decks & cont. Varnishing

December 29th, 2015

The day had come.  I was finally ready to put finish paint onto the deck and cockpit well and seating! Milestone!  The painting tasks were definitely upon me: finish paint for the cockpit and deck, barrier coat for the bottom and finally the ablative bottom paint.  I had roughly timed the paint application to fall within the Christmas / New Year's break, so I'm not surprised by the volume of work compressed within this short amount of time, but now that I see the amount of work....vacation is supposed to be stress-free, right? 

I was excited to get finish paint onto the deck just as I had experienced with the topsides.  I was tired of looking at weathered gelcoat, and now have grown tired of looking at the dull glow of primer paint.  The Interlux Perfection Oyster White will be a welcomed change to the deck and cockpit.

I began by sanding the recently applied primer coat, working my way from the cockpit well, up to the cockpit seating, poopdeck, aft side decks and onto the foredeck, and finishing with the coach roof and cabin sides.  With this being the transition from primer to finish paint, I selected 320-grit paper to sand with.  

Upon finishing the hand-sanding, I vacuumed the surfaces thoroughly and then followed that by a solvent wipe down.  With the surfaces cleaned and ready for paint, I went ahead and mixed a 12oz batch of Interlux Perfection.

While waiting out the 20-minute induction period, I looked after some odds and ends that needed attention around the shop and generally prepared myself for the task ahead.  With the paint reaching its chemical zenith, I thinned it with Interlux's 2333N by 10%, gathered my necessary supplies and made my way over to the boat.  I began at the rudder/tiller tube and its base plate, and used a small foam brush to get the tight spaces in this area.  From there, I made by way around the cockpit floor up the sides of the seating, the seating itself, to the poop deck, the side decks toward the coachroof, the cabin sides and coachroof, and finally onto the foredeck.

After cleaning up from the painting session, I turned my attention to the brightwork.  I had a go 50/50 ratio coat of varnish on the boards I had been working with, and was now ready for a coat of varnish only slightly thinned.  I went with a 90/10 ratio on the varnish and proceeded to apply this on the boards with a foam brush.  

The picture quality is suffering here a bit - I promise :)  The brightwork is really beginning to show its beautiful mahogany grain!

Total Time: 5.5 Hrs.