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Update: The sides and bottom have multiple coats of Brightsides red now, they’re due for one more coat. We sanded aggressively between the first couple of coats, then lighty with 320 grit before the most recent coat.
After the final coat of red, the transom handles will be attached, the boat will be turned over, and the sanding and varnishing of the side rails, deck, cockpit, etc. will be done. I’ll varnish the undersides of the side rails before we turn it over, much easier that way.
Unfortunately, we ran out of time this season to get any more of it finished, too many other unrelated things going on. Our friend is in a new house in Annapolis with semi-heated garage and basement space, and we might put the boat in there this winter so we can continue the painting and varnishing in reasonable temperatures.
I’ll post a photo or two of red #150 next time.
I was able to get the bow handle and a beautiful pair of polished stainless steel transom handles from Amazon. The bow handle might be zinc, but it’s chromed nicely and looks great.
Now we have to finish the boat so we can attach the handles. Just one more coat of paint before the transom handles go on, but the bow handle will have to wait a while longer.
As much as that grass might be an annoyance for boaters, remember that it’s great for the Bay and the creatures that live in it and we like to eat!
I see that this handle is made of cast zinc. Is that strong enough to carry the front of the boat without worry?
I have my eyes on some stainless steel handles for the back, but I really like the look of this curved handle for the front.
The photo in the second CLC link referenced above clearly shows a boat with a full coat of gray primer on the sides being painted red; the bottom is not visible.
We bought the Interlux primer and paint in person at CLC. It’s what they told us to use. After we bought it, I started researching what we might need to know about it before applying it.
I consulted with a friend, whom I helped build a CLC Mill Creek kayak kit some years ago. He used two coats of the Interlux primer on the entire hull before painting, sanding between coats. The boat lives mostly out of the water and he’s not had any issues with the finish; it’s still beautiful.
It would be interesting to hear from anyone who has had an actual negative experience from doing this with a boat that is usually out of the water.
In any case, we applied the primer to the entire hull yesterday in the heat and humidity and will be sanding off much of it in the next work session. We’ll paint after that, no second coat of primer. If this eventually turns out badly, I’ll certainly report that in this forum, but it will take a year or two to find out.
We sanded the entire exterior of the boat a few days ago, using 150 and 220 grit by hand, and 220 in the orbital sander. We didn’t want to be too aggressive with the sanding, only using slightly coarser grade 120 in a few spots where excess epoxy has to be knocked down.
In spite of our best efforts, there are areas that are still uneven enough to not be fully sanded–the small shallow spots won’t sand without removing a fair amount of material around them and possibly risking cutting into the fiberglass cloth. I hope that primer adhesion will be sufficient to deal with these areas.
Advice would be appreciated. It’s almost impossible to put down a completely smooth, even, level coat of the stuff, at least at our level of experience.
The exterior will be painted up to the bottom of the rails. When we turn the boat over to work on the deck and interior, we’ll attempt an even smoother finish for the deck, because it and probably the interior will be varnished.
The cockpit will be more labor intensive to sand, and I’m going to do some of it with the boat still upside down, and me sitting under it with the cockpit front, back and sides more or less at face level. Jack disagrees, but for me that will be far easier than reaching in from above.
We’ve spent the last few weeks applying several coats of epoxy to the cockpit, deck, and hull of the boat. That is mostly finished, although we might put one more thin layer on as there are a few areas where I can still see the weave of the fabric.
Lesson learned: To fill the weave, one has to use a well-saturated foam roller and not spread the epoxy too thin. This is not difficult on surfaces that are level or nearly so, it’s harder on vertical surfaces, where only so much can be applied before it starts to flow down.
I found that after application, I have to spend considerable time with roller, brush, and a rag to smooth out the runs and remove excesses at the edges of the work area.
We’ll finish epoxy on the exterior next weekend, and commence sanding while the boat is upside down, then we’ll finish the deck and cockpit areas.
Next photo shows how I applied unthickened epoxy into the gaps between coaming and cockpit side that I have mentioned previously. Remember that the boat is upside down and I am sitting under it in the cockpit, injecting the epoxy into the underside of the coaming. The side of the coaming, where it meets the deck, has been filleted and thus did not leak epoxy. For this procedure, we had to adjust the boat so the coaming was level. The photo is for demonstration, the job was done previously.
Below are photos of the back of the keel, and the front of the keel and the bow area.
I e-mailed Dave Searle in early april to hold our motor until the back-ordered part came in. I think that it was a kill switch extension wire, and it was supposed to be available in about a month. We won’t need the motor until late this season anyway, when the boat hopefully will be finished and launched. I haven’t heard anything from him since then.
I’ll contact him soon to find out if the part came in, and to see if he still has a motor and the other parts for us.
