well we had a bit of rain off and on in the morning but then the sun came out around 9am and amazingly in spite of the weather forecast stayed out!
i got started by doing batch of primer and i did a coat on the stern hull segment and transom and i was able to do almost the full port side as well. the hardest part was mixing the stuff fortunately aimee had got a drill mixer attachment as the stuff was like clay.
i could not believe we where supposed to let this stuff sit for 30 minutes after mixing it before putting it on they call this “induction time” at 30 deg c the stuff does not stay liquid for much long than that. i sent aimee in to double and trippe check on line and she confirmed this requirement, she did confirm we could lower the time to 20 minutes in the weather we had.
after doing the first batch i was again disillusioned as we had done a 6oz – 6oz batch out of two quarts. i did the math wrong thinking there where only 16 ozs per quart and thought we would not have enough. fortunately after lunch and some more sanding i discovered there where 32 ozs in a quart. who would have guessed! so we had enough for 4 more batches which looked like it would be just enough!
we kept mixing up batches and rolling them on as fast as we did them they dried and then i would do another batch. we managed 4 coats on the back 8 feet of the boat and two up in the bow and 3 in the middle. once we finished up with the epoxy it was time for bottom paint before the epoxy was totally dry. we tried a couple roller options. i got covered with paint painting over my head and pored a bunch over my foot before we got the hang of it.
aimee was clearly the more experienced painter which was good as i was pretty worn out from the epoxy coat. we managed to get a coat over all the primer before the day ended. this was way better than we expected and we where now back on our “original” sched. all we need is some good weather in the am to get one more coat on and we will be able to launch on thurs! barring rain on wed of course.
we had been invited over to a dave’s trawler for dinner so after showers we got some appetizers and wine together and headed down to the dingy. we actually made it “close” to on time and dave made us a delicious pasta dinner. it was just what we needed after a long day at work. dave was a great host and served us a new “local” rum that was top notch. i did make the mistake of playing with dave’s kitten so i got a bit of an allergic reaction requiring another shower.
if we can get our paint done in the am we plan to bus over to the festivities or perhaps dingy over to waka irea and then sail around with them.
Cheers Roger
Wouldn’t have trouble with quarts and ounzes if the US joined the rest of the world and used metric!