This was the starting point, bare hull with lots of filler. The blue laine is actually tapeteh old waterline was sanded away. I decided to lift the waterline by 2,54 cm, for you who or on the other side of teh pond thats exactly one inch. The way I did it (actually my wife did it) was simple and straightforward. Just run a tape directly over the old line followed by another tape which would then become the upper barrier for the primer.
Then it began, the dreaded light primer phase. I have heard ao many stroies of how this can go wrong so I was naturally slightly worried of how it will go. The dirst task was to run a pressure washer twice over the hull, followed by two applications of Hempels pre clean cleaner taht was brushed on and rinsed off with the pressure washer. The result was bone dry and a squeky clean surface. After it had dried I followed the instructions and used 20% of 845 thinner with the first layer of light primer.
It took me many hours to get the first coat on and believe me it was hard work. The bottom was prepped with 80 grit paper and the primer stuck in there like nothing I have seen before. Below you can see what it started to look like. The sides where the masking tape were done in "wet on wet" style since I realle did not want to do the masking for each layer and wanted to make sure that I will get enough thickness for the sides.
Each layer is of different color so it was easy to see where more paint was needed. All in all we now have four layers of light primer. Some say that five would be better but after talkong to the reps, I decided that if each voating gives me five years four is enough. If I still have this boat after twenty years something has gone horibly wrong...
Here's a picture of what the second coat looked like. The tricky part came with the fourth layer, you really need to paint the antofouling on it while it's stil tacky. Even in our 18 degrees temperatures this did not take long. Luckily help came in and we manages to get the paint on smoothly, two persons working on one side, two on the other. First the last coat of primer followed by a layer of Hempel's hard racing extra in an awfully ugly blue color.
Why this color? Simply because the final layer will be Hempel's Mille extra which is a kind of polishing antifouling that will slowly dissolve. When I see blue shining through black I know that the antifouling needs to painted again.
In case you are wondering about why I chose to leave white and grey showing, the reason is quite simple, time. I did not have enough time to do the additional white stripe under the black waterline stripe before the final epoxy + hard raving was applied. That needs to be done separately, maybe this weekend. The white stripe in the bow is actually left bare because I need to install the keel guard and since it was still in the metal shop I wanted to leave it bare for better adhesion, it will be through bolted and put to its place with liberal amounts of sikaflex and yes I have remembered to do the prep work in the bilge area as well. I will put a new coat of white paint in the forward bilge before using sikaflex with the trough bolts.
It is difficult to se in the picture but the bottom is been painted to black. The trouble is of course how do you get those hard to reach places where the bottom is touching the stands? I'm taking the easy way and getting the crane truck to swing by and hoist the boat ups for a few seconds while I'll readjust the stands.
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