Painting - The sailaway comes in primer - word of advice - primer is not waterproof - get a top coat on as soon as possible to protect your boat - TCW will be painted as soon as we get her - nothing fancy - just two coats of undercoat and two of top to protect her from the elements - we will repaint when she's fully fitted with coachlines & signwriting etc.

Painting

Well fine words above and very good advice - 10 weeks after launch and still no paint! - there are so many things to do!!

We are now starting to address this problem before the poorer weather sets in. Already light surface rust is beginning to show, especially near welds and in spots that got 'missed' when sprayed (eg under handrails etc.)

Having talked to the man at the Rylard paint stand at Crick, we were told the following:

Primer is porous, Undercoat is porous, Topcoat is not! His recommendation is: forget the undercoat - get another good coat of primer and then get a couple of coats of top coat on to seal it. When everything else is finished and you've finished drilling holes, chipping paint etc. then rub it down and use it as a base for a proper paint job.

No doubt there are experts out there who consider this a criminal thing to do but it seems to make sense to us so that's what we are doing.

As we are not aiming for the perfect finish we are using a gloss from 'Midland Chandlers' which at £8.40 a tin (I think it's a litre) is a darn sight cheaper than most!

So far we have painted the roof (primed and one coat of top) and the foredeck (nose!) with two coats. One side is also primed. We have come to the conclusion that we are not into painting! So when everything else is finished we are probably going to pay to have TCW painted!

Update as of 9/9/02

Well TCW is now nearly painted - we got a little carried away - instead of a simple coat of blue she now sports cream handrails, stern rail and even some signwriting - see 'a cheats guide to sign writing' !! - some pictures:

Home