Clear, dry, and windy

Clear dry and windy so no hull primer today.

Yesterday had the threat and afternoon arrival of thundershowers. The usual. I really don't have to mention the weather any more. It is always the same. Too hot, too windy, or too wet...

With a guest coming I decided to do some heavy sanding in the interior and then vacuum inside and hose out the bilge to get rid of the dust that has been accumulating for too long. The settees often get used as a workbench so they had lots of drips and spills. The V-berth bed got a little messed up when I was insulating and the fumes from the contact cement started effecting my motor skills and I got sloppy. So, I took the DA sander to the V-berth bunk and settee bases. I also took a belt sander to a couple of edges that had never lined up and ... well, made them line up. While I was sanding I did a quick wipe on the oak beams that support the mast. Then I cleaned. That hole I drilled in the bottom of the boat to drain the winter water has really paid off. I can hose down everything and it always drains out completely. Drilling a hole in the bottom of my boat was a very good idea.

So, with a clean boat I decided to give all the raw wood a coating of boiled linseed oil to seal it. It's my nod to the old time traditions and it can't hurt. Its kind of nice to work with stuff that isn't so toxic too. I tend to use it as my first method of protection on all my wood.

Today, I really had hoped to prime the hull. It was way too windy. Since I had oiled my teak drawer fronts yesterday I decided to give them a first coat of thinned out varnish. I can do this at home in the garage and out of the wind. Since I had the varnish out I decided to give my head locker doors and framing a last coat of 'rubbed effect' varnish. I really like the look of the rubbed effect on the interior wood. A nice satiny look without the bright shine of varnish. And since I was in the varnishing mode I decided to look at my other exterior wood bits. I will have to put some on after painting to close up some holes in the deck. Most of the exterior wood was in good shape. It all has 7 coats of varnish and six months of actual use before being removed and stuck in the basement. It was pretty dusty but after cleaning it up most of it looked pretty good. There were too pieces that I must have dripped some epoxy on at some point so I sanded them down to wood and put a thinned coat of varnish on. Then I put a coat of varnish on all the other pieces just to 'freshen' them up. They aren't perfect but perfectly adequate for one season so I am not going to go crazy on them with so much else to do.

So, since my painting skills were up I decided to put a third coat of the semi-gloss enamel on the overhead liner. This time, I thinned to the recomended amount (10%)and added a drop of Penetrol. My chemist friend said that all oil bases paints used to have the ingredients in Penetrol but when they started trying to save money they left it out- along with switching to low quality synthetic resins. So I tried it and applied it with just a foam roller, no tipping with the brush afterwards. It came out much better. I might put a fourth coat just to make it that much better and cover some stubborn dark spots. I had sanded through the primer in a few spots where I had made repairs and I should have re-primed. The Interlux Premium Interior Enamel just doesn't cover up the dark spots very well. All in all though, looking much better and close to acceptable.

So... then I thought I would keep going and primed the V-berth lower panels and icebox front panel with Interlux Pre-kote primer. The fir beadboard grain shows up badly and really needs a lot of prep to make look nice.

Then I thought I would get out my favorite paint and start painting the settee bottoms and the inside of the future storage lockers. I love working with Bilge-kote. Hardly any prep is necessary. I have never primed first. I just lay it on and it works well. It isn't up to exposed interior standards but for the bilge (which is what it is designed for after all) and the inside of storage lockers it works fine. Plus, it is super resistant to oils, mold, and other yucky stuff that finds its way into the nether regions. When I cleaned up my V-berth I thought I was going to sand through it but it held up quite well and I could sand off all the glue drips without cutting through the paint. Good stuff, that Bilge-kote. Anyway, I applied a single coat all over the place. It needs another coat to cover. The wood was VERY thirsty. But I expected that.

So now I have a very white boat interior.




I almost continued to the cockpit storage lockers but they really aren't prepped for it. In the past few months they have received some drips and other anomalies that need to be sanded out first. I wasn't going to sand with all that wet paint everywhere. It was a good day so I called it quits.