Green, Beige, Polka-dot, White...

and now Gray.

At 7:00 am this morning:



At 9:00 am this morning:




The gray was MUCH easier to see and work with and it covered much better. Never did I have to squint and cry with the pain of burning eyeballs. I would be a little happier if I had a little more gray primer on hand for a second coat. On the other hand, if this does it then that extra can would sit on my shelf for a very long time.

Doing hull work is just so much easier than deck work. I was thinking about trying again on the deck and I immediately felt sick. I just don't know if I can try again and have to sand it all back down again only to be right where I am now. I may have reached the point of 'achievable perfection' on the deck. To do better I would really have to have a wind free shelter and some better working temperatures.

Note to anyone thinking of doing something like this boat project:

1.) DON"T! Just buy a new boat (if you can find one that doesn't make you want to wretch - new boats are horribly ugly and poorly designed, hence I have a project...)

2.) Build a shelter first while you still have the money. I read the magazine articles about painting outdoors in the boatyard. They lied. It just isn't feasible unless you can settle for a poor paint job. Obviously they wrote the articles to please the paint manufacturers that pay for advertising. If you don't need a top-notch paint job then skip Awl-Grip products and try the Interlux stuff. Everyone says they are easier. They might not be quite as good, but easier sounds pretty nice to me right now. Maybe I should even consider switching to Interlux Perfection for the decks... I am not there yet but if I didn't have a friendly painter who is trying to help me out then I would undoubtdedly go that route.

Sadly, when I washed the hull prior to paint this morning I noticed some fresh 'battle scars'. I don't know where came from but I wasn't happy about it. They were not so bad or numerous as to cause me to break out the fairing filler but I wasn't too happy.