Happy Holidays

Hyia all! We have not given up even if thing have slowed down a lot due to a lot of reasons. Looking forward to restarting as soon as we can, we have purchased the eye bolts specified for the boat, which are impossible to find in Italy. I had to order them from a British company which only ships to UK and Ireland, so I had them shipped to my son who lives in Scotland and then he carried those home when visiting for the christmas holidays.

Painting the second ama and the daggerboard

Two hours of work today: after giving the hull a light sanding with 240 grit, we gave it the second coat of one-part polyurethane paint, thinned 10%.

We also gave the daggerboard the third coat of paint (one side only):

Total work time to date: 704 hours

Second ama, first paint coat

Two hours on tuesday to give the second ama, after the primer, a light sanding with 240 grit followed by a first coat of paint (Boero Altura TC + 10% thinner). Here's the freshly painted hull.

Total work time to date: 702 hours

Primer coating the second ama

We are finally back from a crazy working period and the well deserved summer vacations. Last thursday we went back to the shop and swapped the amas to paint the second one.

Yesterday we cleaned the surface and gave two coats of primer (Boero Giano, 10% thinner). Here's Cinzia  starting at it

and here's the final result

Total work time to date: 700 hours (!)

Second paint coat, first ama

Two hours of work on last saturday to give the first ama the second paint coat, after a light sanding with 320 grit.

Total work time to date: 697 hours

First ama, first coat of paint

Three hours of work this week end. On saturday morning we sanded the primer with 240 and 320 grit, and then cleaned everything

On sunday, we gave the first coat of enamel (Boero Altura TC) with 10% thinner

During the week we plan to give the first ama the second coat of enamel.

Total work time to date: 695 hours

Painting the first ama: primer

Two hours of work today to give the first ama one coat of primer. We used the Boero "Giano" primer with the Boero 703 thinner at roughly 7%, after cleaning the hull with an anti-static cloth. We are quite pleased of the results event if next time we will increase the amount of thinner to the maximun recommended value since the temperature went up dramatically these last days.

 

Total work time to date: 692 hours

Still sanding

Two hours of work today. Sanding.

The two akas are now ready for painting.

A question for our followers: we are using Boero Altura TC mono-component polyurethane enamel with the specified thinner at the specified ratio (about 5%). The surfaces have been sanded, washed, cleaned and dried accurately, and we used a foam roller. The problem that we have is that, after two weeks, the painted surface could still be dented with a nail, either using a primer (the one specified for this enamel) or not. The only reason I could imagine is that we were anxious to start painting and we did so when the temperature was probably too low. Could this explain the slow reticulation?

Total work to date: 690 hours

Sanding and more

Weather has been (and still is) nothing short of miserable, with continuous rain, low temperatures and high humidity which made painting almost impossible. So we sanded, hopefully for the last time, with 240 and 320 grit (120 only to remove the remaining epoxy drips).

In the meantime we purchased the rudder hardware and one more porthole for the cockpit

From our sporadic painting experiment, it seems that we will need a primer under the the enamel, so went shopping in Bari to purchase the Boero Giano primer that is especially made to work with the Boero Altura TC one-pot polyurethane enamel. Hope that is puts an end to the search...

Total work time to date: 688 hours

We're back

Hiya all! After a very long interruption due to several reasons, here we are for what we hope it's going to be our last period working on the boat. We worked three hours this saturday, to give one of the three hulls the final sanding prior to painting. Our previous experiments have shown that the water based acrylic enamel is too soft, and we decided to use a specific one-pot polyurethane enamel.We lightly sanded one of the float hulls using 240- and 320-grit, and than cleaned it.

Then, we decided to try this new enamel on the daggerboard. Tomorrow we will give the second coat.

Total work time to date:684 hours