22 November 2009

Sanding and painting

A very unsatisfying time, I must say. Sanding white paint off and painting white paint back on, I am starting to dream about white paint. In reality, it couldn't be much simpler as I have gone for a pretty simple plan. I got over my panic about brush marks and am just happy to have it looking clean and not-so-smooth. I have been rolling 3 coats of Interprotect on top of the epoxy sealer, then sanding that down smooth. The top 2 coats of Perfection Undercoat then get brushed on, within 3 days. So, in effect I am only sanding it once. If I could get self-sanding paint I would.

Bill has been on another job for the last two weeks, hence the focus on paint. I can't really paint while he is here so I have been putting it off.

The photos show the engine room painted out with brushable gelcoat. I have now bolted on a few items and won't be unbolting them - yippee! It is a little pathetic but it gives me a big boost to see things in their final place. One shot shows part of the exhaust system - stainless pipe that I had electro-polished to help against corrosion.

04 November 2009

Memo to self

So, I have finally worked out that going off and doing deliveries for other people does not get my boat finished, especially when I am helping Bill deliver a boat and neither of us is here. Last month I helped bring a boat up to Auckland from Wellington, then helped Bill bring a boat down from New Caledonia. Enough! I really need to sand!

Progress while I was away the first time was good, the aft cabin has really taken shape. Overall the layout is the same, with a hanging locker/cupboard space to starboard and storage to port, forward of the bunk. We have tried to keep it really simple, however Bill was scratching his head to work out how to put the port side locker together, it is a bit of a Lego kit. Looks good though.

We took a collective deep breath and cut the top opening for the new gas bottle locker. The weight of the section cut out is astounding, 10.5 kilos for the hole you see. This works out to 26 kg/m2, no wonder these boats don't bob around like a cork!

Very heartened to see that we haven't managed to kill the entire neighbourhood population of insects off with our nasty chemicals, here you have a weta (family Anostostomatidae) crawling over Weta.