Painting the deck and hull
This was a project we didn’t really want to do so soon. Only because we had the boat on the shore for another season to allow the polyester to dry below the waterline did we start this project. In retrospect, it turned out to be very wise, because we discovered rot at one of the wall wells.
Preparation, removing Treadmaster
Before painting can begin, there is a lot of preliminary work. Actually, the actual painting of the boat is only 10% or even less of what this job entails. Fortunately, we did not know this in advance!
In several places we had pans or plastic containers to catch incoming raindrops. Some leaks we could easily identify because, for example, it seeped in between the sealant edges of a window. This is easy to fix, just replace the sealant edge. Other leaks were a lot more difficult. For example, there appeared to be a leak under the Treadmaster (grip on the deck) near a wall well. We didn’t like the blue grip either, so we decided to remove it all from the deck. A time-consuming job. Cm by cm we dragged it off with a multitool. This took us quite a few days.
Repairing leaks / soft spots in the deck
Our deck consists of a sandwich construction of polyester, balsa wood and then polyester again. In several places we found that the middle layer had been rotting away over the years due to leaks. We started checking all the deck penetrations (places where things are mounted on the deck through the deck). If it appeared that the wood was rotten, we removed the polyester and wood until we got to the end of the rot where the wood was still dry. In places where something was mounted, but where no leakage had occurred, we drilled out the hole. So enlarged. Then sanded away the edge around it at an angle. We filled these holes with thickened epoxy and then laminated them with mats of glass so there could be no break edge.
The tip of the boat was the only one. There we had to replace most of the wood. In the pictures below, we have pictured this process.
Old situation
The rotten wood removed
Closed-cell foam in place
Cutting the fiberglass mats
Laminated and filled in
With the HB coating
Painting the deck
After making the boat completely bare, we puttied it with epoxy putty. We then sanded this putty again to create a nice smooth surface. As a first coat, we chose HB coating from the Ijssel. A primer that also fills the small holes. HB coating does not flow like the lacquer we used. So we also had to sand this completely smooth.
We used DD lacquer from the Ijssel. This is a 2-component lacquer, which is very strong and flows nicely. Wind can cause the lacquer to flow (smoothen) less. For that reason we decided it was better to put the boat in the shed temporarily. In addition, this was convenient because since we had completely stripped it bare it could rain in many places. Before painting we degreased the boat and wiped it down with a tack cloth.
With a temperature around 20 degrees Celsius, we diluted the DD lacquer with 8%. When varnishing, it is important not to go back to one spot. You lacquer, let it flow and don’t touch it again. If you do, you will continue to see it. We learned this the hard way! We varnished the deck 3 times.
The deck beforehand:
The deck afterwards:
Painting the hull
2.5 years we spent refurbishing the boat. Of that, varnishing the hull took a week. And yet it’s the hull we continually get the most reactions to. It is a real eye catcher! Actually, the process of the hull was exactly the same as that of painting the deck. A lot easier to pre-treat because it is 1 big surface. We also first put the hull in the HB coating. Then 3x in the DD varnish. An annoying fly caused this project to take 2 days longer. Martijn still went back 1 more time with his brush. How bad could that be. The result of this action became a highly visible spot. We decided to sand and paint the entire hull one more time. In retrospect, we are very happy with that!
