Painted and rolled. Yee haw.

The guys I hired to paint the boat did a great job prepping it, but the painting didn’t go as well as we wanted.  We ended up with a few too many sags, some weird swirl marks that I think had something to do with the wipedown solvent they used, and a fair bit of dirt and bugs in the paint.  Sooooo… We did it twice.  The second time went MUCH better, and while there are still a couple of minor sags and a few fish eyes, it’s damned good.

Here you can see by the reflection that the hull came out really fair. It was worth all the sanding. There are, of course, places where it’s not perfect, but I’m very happy.

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Here are a few more shots:
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You may be saying to yourself: “Wait a second. That boat is right side up now. It was upside down in the last photos.”

And if you’re saying that, you’re right. After the first paint exercise, we decided to turn it over before shooting the do-over coat. The bottom (below waterline) parts were actually fine, and don’t much matter aesthetically. And that big bow flare just catches dirt as it settles. So we wanted to do the do-over right side up.

Flipping it was an interesting exercise.  I rigged three chain hoists from the ceiling / crane beams, and used the crane for the fourth lift point.  Then I hung two lift straps – one forward and one aft – between each pair of hoists, and positioned the hoists so those on the port side were at full retract and the starboard were at full extend.  Then I just ratcheted in the long ones and let out the short ones, and as the straps moved they rolled the boat with it.  Photos:

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Today we cleaned up the paint area, and moved the boat back inside.  She’s ready and waiting for interior fitout.  Exciting stuff.

-Ben

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