Bottom Paint 2010

It was a cloudy windy day, early May 2010, when I applied the bottom paint. I used a roller and one gallon of ablative paint. The bottom appeared to be in very good condition, and the bottom paint went on easy. The blue color was very attractive in that it gave the boat a very clean look.

The areas under the jacks were painted the following day. The marina lifted the boat and I painted the areas with a foam brush. Within 2o minutes after I painted those areas, the boat was launched -- yes the paint wasn't giving the correct amount of time to cure, but the marina was not able to afford having the boat tie up the hoist for 8 hours.

I painted the hull after I used a machine to apply "Buff Magic" - - as a recommended rubbing compound. I also applied the Professional Polish. I admit that I need to become better at using the correct product and buffing machine -- I wasn't too pleased with the results especially after the time and energy I made working on the hull. Painting the bottom was so much easier on my arms than buffing the hull. The exercise has led me to the understanding of why many sailors choose to leave the hull alone,,, let it age gracefully, or sailors pay someone else to buff and wax the hull.

Gelcoat on Hull Port Side Part 2

The picture toward the left depicts the repair of the hull at the location where I sprayed gel coat that was matched to the color of the hull. Notice that the two repair spots are barely noticeable.

My first attempt at color matching the gel coat was not successful because I had not sprayed enough gel coat, which made the original repair show through the new color match gel coat.

My second attempt was an improvement. I sprayed a thick layer upon layer of gel coat using the Preval sprayer to cover the original gel coat repair. The thick layer of gel coat left an orange peel textured that required sanding with 320, 400, 500, and then 600 sand paper. Lastly, I used a buffer machine to smooth the final gel coat.

The repair was my first using a disposable sprayer. The picture doesn't depict much variation, but, that is the point of color matching.