Two Down.. Make that Three.. Five.. Make that Four.. to Go

As expected, it hit 57 degrees here in Minnesota today. For those of you south of the Mason-Dixon line, or indeed, south of Minnesota, that's not a big deal. But for us, it's cause to celebrate. In fact, it was a near-perfect sailing day and more than once I commented that if PocketShip were done, we'd be out in it. Still, it's a bit cool to be painting as overnight lows will be in the 30's, so we got a space heater extraordinaire to help. It easily raised the temperature 20 degrees and made it downright lukewarm in the garage. There's hope I can extend the season a little bit with this little guy working wonders in the rear. Of the shop.

About 2/3 of the way done with the first coat.

Painting, though exciting for what will come, isn't terribly in and of itself. Sure, there's latex gloves and a gas mask to wear, but that's protection not entertainment. The boat is tricky to get in and out of as it is, let alone while trying to be careful. One small move and I'd be wearing Sherman Williams' finest all purpose primer. It's exhausting work, requiring a contortionist skill set while trying to balance on two planks of cedar I had leftover from a planter project this summer.

I got the first coat down, cleaned up for dinner, came home, changed, and put down the second coat. By the time I finish writing this and catch up on the news of the day, it'll be ready for the third coat. That's a lot of coats in a day but the primer seems able to handle it. Indeed, the label says at 77 degrees, coats can go on about 60 minutes. It's 70 in the garage so I'll test it in about 90 minutes. If the weather holds up, I might be painting the topcoat tomorrow. There's a big sale coming up (40% off paint) in a couple weeks but by then it might be too cold. Decisions, decisions!!

Second coat finshed, a few hours later.

Our usual paint supplier is Sherman Williams. They have an outlet store a few blocks from the house. Our old neighbor, let's call him Stan, was a professional house painter and in fact painted our bedroom trim. By all accounts, he was a pretty good painter, but not very good with women. To clarify, he was pretty good with women, but not very good with good women. The last one took him for pretty much everything he owned and he ultimately foreclosed on his house. His legacy, though, was leaving us with his account at Sherman Williams. They seem to be fairly knowledgeable, certainly more than the Big Box guys, so when I walked in last week looking for paint, I interviewed the poor fellow for a good 10 minutes before setting on what I wound up buying.

First coat done, working on footwell. You can't see it, but I'm sweating buckets here.

Just like wood, just like epoxy, just like glue, paint comes in all sorts of sizes, flavors, and "enhancements." Most of the noise is plain marketing nonsense, but some of it is relevant. UV protection and water resistance is real. Everything else is kinda fluff. I settled on some pretty good latex exterior house paint for the interior of the cabin and what will be the cockpit. I figured, like some others, that this will save a little bit of money as I can probably get through the painting with one gallon. I also think it'll look nice as the same "satin eggshell" I'm going for will be inside and out.

I'm also painting the outboard sides of the footwell. This is the side that faces the cabin. For some reason, a few PocketShips I've seen haven't painted them. I'm sure it's because they went in later and builders figured no one would see it, anyway. I guess that's true, but I had a brush in my hand and they were standing there, staring at me, so paint they get. Of course, I haven't done the transom or the forward locker, having decided to wait until the speaker boxes go in. One step at a time, even for painting.

Update: Fast forward in time to the 3rd coat down..

After the third coat. Much better coverage. I don't think I'll do a 4th.

Looking aft. Considering whether or not to fill in the small gaps where the fiberglass on the cleats gave me some trouble. Figure a little marine caulk should do it.

Outboard footwell sides (the sides facing into the cabin) and dashboard with 3rd coat. Heating element courtesy of Costco brings the garage up to 60'.

Looking forward.The "bright" area is the forward part of the footwell, which will be highly visible underway, and will get its own treatment when the time comes.