When will this winter finally end? We were asking this all the way thru March with snow surprising us every week. But here we are, Easter time finally came and with it some warmer temperatures.
The first days with the large shop overhead doors finally open and temperatures in the 50s are back – and this means painting and varnishing!
All brightwork on LUCIE has been finished and we took some extra time to prepare her topsides for the final coat of topside paint. Preparation of the hull takes quiet some time and involves various forms of abrasives in the 300 to 500 grit range, followed by numerous rounds of cleaning up. Almost the same amount of time is being spent on cleaning everything around the hull, including trailer, decks, floors, scaffolding, ladders and even personal gear. Finally everything except the topsites themselves get watered down – its all about preventing any dust from getting air-born. Even with daytime temperatures in the low 50s it still takes almost 36 hours after application for the paint to be truly tack free – quiet some time to keep a bay of a boat shop dust free. But we are not doing this for the first time…
So LUCIE is gleaming in her fresh topsides and we are now tackling the bottom – a very light longboarding and then several coats of a racing bottom paint, just enough to allow us some wet sanding between events this coming season. Pretty soon the bottom will be wrapped again in poly sheeting to keep the moisture in until LUCIE’s first splash of the season in mid May.
Some new deck hardware came in last week, we’ll show some pictures of it in the next blog update…
Jens
Baltic Boat Works
Speak Your Mind