Raise the Sail

Ugghhh, our email system keeps butching my emails... Trying again

Today was an exciting day! For the first time ever I got to see how Shan Skailyn's rigging is all going to work out. Raise that sail!

Tadaa... Finished paint job

Our family took this whole week off after Christmas... well mostly off. Still had some little work things that came up but all in all it was a decent week off. So I managed to get Shan Skailyn's hull, iakos and ama completely painted! The paint job is finally done!!! That was a huge job!
So check it out! Shan Skailyn in all her slightly gaudy, painted glory! Our two older girls and some visiting friends were quite excited to play with 'Rusty' the tree kangaroo in the boat.

Even though I just used exterior acrylic paint, I'm thinking that with the 4 coats of primer and at least 3 top coats (the red needed more to keep the primer from showing through) that the paint job ought to hold up a good long time. I sanded in between all the primer coats (not the top coats) which helped produce a nice smooth finish overall.
One little tip for any other would be boat painters out there. If you're not using masking tape and still wanting some fairly clean lines in your paint job, use a little edge painter like the one I used. I actually had masking tape but on the pieces I tested it on it just was leaving a ton of hard to remove junk and the adhesive was just too strong. I was worried it was going to remove paint. So I first opted to hand paint the lines in using some little artist paint brushes we had on hand. S-L-O-W! Also, the lines were still too ragged for my taste. That's when I rummaged through my supply cabinet and found that I had this little edge painter. It's just a flat pad, with lots of short, soft bristles and a little grip on the backside. It's made for painting right up into corners with no mess and no masking. I decided to try it and was blown away by how smoothly it lays down paint... no bubbles, hardly any streaks... just smooth. It also makes it so much easier to paint a nice clean straight edge. Everything about this little device really made it the perfect applicator for the whole paint job (except for filleted corners). So I used it for everything once I discovered I had it. Can I say again that this thing laid down a super clear coat? Better than any roller or paintbrush I've ever used. I think a sprayer probably would have done better, but for the low budget people, this thing is a treat! Get one for your boat!

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Primer all done

Okay, let's try this email thing again. For some reason it seems incapable of delivering an email with its attachments. This is the message that was supposed to go with the last two pix.

Got Shan Skailyn's iakos (crossbeams) and both ama sections (the outrigger float) painted with primer today. Not just one coat, but three... all in one slam bam morning working in the warm sun. The stuff was drying fast enough that once I finished putting a coat on the other pieces, the first piece was ready to sand and coat again. So just busted it all out today. Next step will be to put the top coat on everything.

At little odd times here and there through the week I managed to put the strip of fiberglass over the keel line of the ama as well as the reinforcing wraps around the end of the crossbeams where the ama struts mount and exert lots of forces that threaten splitting the beams.

Really the only thing left to paint will be the motor mounting bracket which I have yet to build. For the motor mount, I'm seriously thinking about deviating a bit from Gary's plans and lashing the thing on the crossbeam, rather than using a bolting assembly. I figure if I modify the design just a touch so that the sides, instead of just resting flat under the crossbeam, are built up a couple inches higher and then given cutouts into which the the crossbeam sits snugly, then some nice tight lashing should hold the thing quite well. Can anyone with experience tell me if this is folly? After assembling Shan Skailyn the other day and seeing just how amazingly strong those lashings are, I figure with the proper modifications the motor mount could be installed the same way (still using Gary's recommending anti-torqueing line of course).

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Keep on priming

Just another weekend of applying primer coat after primer coat after primer coat. You forget how much work painting is! Painting, anxiously waiting and checking for it to dry, then sanding, and going through the whole process again... and again.
As of now, I've got 4 good coats of primer on the aft section of the hull with only 3 so far on the fore and mid sections. I'm debating whether or not 3 coats of primer is enough. First off, I'm tired of applying the stuff. Second, 3 heavy coats seems like it might just be enough. Especially considering that I've got at least 2 gloss top coat that will be going on later. BUT since this is just lowly acrylic house paint, I do want to make sure I'm applying the necessary amount to hold up a good long time. Is three coats of primer and 2 coats of gloss top coat enough for a boat that will always be out of the water when not in use?

Get 'yer primer on

Didn't have a lot of time to work on Shan Skailyn this weekend. BUT, I did manage to get the first two coats of primer on the aft section of the hull. In preparation for painting I had some little details to finish out, which I did. The leeboard mounting bracket is on and the holes are drilled, the mast step is located and fastened in place (pix forthcoming). At this point, other than some more sanding and scraping I'm ready to really push forward with painting everything.
Had a major disappointment yesterday afternoon when I put the second coat of primer on (planning 4 coats of primer by the way). Not 10 minutes after I had applied the second coat and things were looking really nice, a HUGE storm blew in. The rain was extreme and the wind as well. It managed to blow both rain and mud all the way underneath my house, soaking a bunch of my plywood and my freshly painted hull. Not only was the new paint now diluted and dripping down the sides, but the paint that remained had lots of junk embedded in it! Ughhh! As of this morning, not a huge deal. Everything dried OK and after taking a scraper gently over the affected surface and a quick touch up with sandpaper we're sitting at a nice 1-1/2 coats of primer on this hull section.
Also, up till this point I've not been super happy with any of the bamboo that I've had available for my spars. One of my friends mentioned a piece he'd cut recently which sounded like it'd work. He brought that up on Friday. It's a keeper! The dimensions at the base and head are just right. It's got a nice taper. It's thick walled and has an ever so slight curve up toward the head. So we got all the skin scraped off and I'm currently drying it. Also drilled some teeny tiny little holes just above all the lower nodes to drain out the water that collects in there and slows down the drying process.

Standing by...

You may have noticed that I've not posted anything for a couple weeks here. We recently left our bush location for some language and translation workshops in town. Won't be back into Mibu for another 4 weeks still. Meanwhile, all of Shan Skailyn's materials simply wait.
I did, however, manage to finish one of the drawings of what her paint job may eventually look like. I'm going to buy the needed paint while we're out here.
BTW, the outline is scanned from Gary Dierking's book and photoshopped. I then printed it and then colored it in by hand.