That's a Wrap.

The white exterior of the superstructure is painted. It only took five coats for me to be satisfied with the depth of finish. Taking advantage of a hiatus in dusty steelwork at the stern we did laps of the thing with a roller and brush in each hand, and kept going until I was really, really bored, by which point I'd developed a mean eye for drips and an accompanying deft sort of brush lay off technique to deal with them as they formed. Despite my best efforts I'd just keep finding them, quietly forming under any corner or protrusion like shy white slugs. I think the interlac's quite a thin paint, the inside of the vessel is knobbly with many rivets, and I'm infamously not an expert decorator, although I must say I'm surprising myself. The white interior is also progressing nicely, we're up to four coats in the forward bit (one to go), and a mere three so far inside the engine room. Goes almost without saying we're only painting what's destined to remain visible after a lineout (so far in the future you'd need a decent set of tarot cards to imagine it.)
So now the gorgeous results languish under protective polythene, in anticipation of the return of the inevitable dust, and I'm hoping to finish the interior this weekend. It'll probably take weeks to get the paint out of my left ear.

Two Coats.

Is your boat a...goer...eh? Know what I mean? Know what I mean? Nudge nudge. Nudge nudge. Know what I mean? Say no more...know what I mean?

I beg your pardon?

Your boat...does she, er, does she 'go' - eh? eh? eh? Know what I mean, know what I mean? Nudge nudge. Say no more.

Well, she sometimes goes, yes.

I bet she does. I bet she does. I bet she does. Know what I mean? Nudge nudge.

I'm sorry, I don't quite follow you.

Follow me. Follow me. I like that. That's good. A nod's as good as a wink to a blind bat, eh? (elbow gesture; rubs it)

Oh. Still (slaps hands lightly twice) Woah! Eh? Wo-oah! Eh?

Look, are you insinuating something?

Oh...no...no... Yes.



This could go on for some time.

Whiteout.

Indeed, it’s the first topcoat of white (interlac 665) going on to the superstructure exterior, that’s the front of the wheelhouse under wraps in the pic. Finally. It’s happening, another two coats of this oughta make it nice and solid, and we’ve got to get some areas inside done too. We’re still in process of choosing/finding the right red for the funnel though, don’t laugh, it’s important.

Oh, in other news this week Robin has pretty much finished welding up the rivets and platelines on the bosun’s section of the hull, and as the stern itself is to be completely replated that means he’s now done all of them on the entire vessel below the waterline. That’s well over FOUR THOUSAND of the buggers. I want to hug him.

The Stink of success.

What are we doing? In a belt and braces style we’ve just completed the rollering on of an additional two good coats of intershield over the whole deck and superstructure… Well, we had the paint anyway, and although SBS had left very few holidays after their spray job we thought it’d be good to thicken the whole lot up at the same time as catching the missed bits, Steve (from SBS) looked mightily amused by me when he found out what we were doing, and offered to bring his dry film thickness measuring contraption round in order to demonstrate just how good a job his boys had done, but then admitted it certainly wouldn’t hurt on the exterior, so we gaily rolled away. Next stop, top coats (!)

This is all getting a bit good really, and I swear to you it’s not just the paint fumes talking- although judging by that inane expression I’m wearing in the first photo (cheers Jan) I probably should have worn a mask- but I’m again feeling right good about the whole project. I know Robin might beg to differ at this point, having finally decided that he really, really detests welding up rivets. And no matter that Wendy Ann’s stern is still very much a work in progress; I’m just all excited and manic about the whole damn thing. This is a much-improved state of being compared to my usual sweary attitude, so for now everything at least seems rosy (or silvery, or something.)

But why start doing all this when the last bit of the boat is still, well, holey? If we can get the topcoats on the superstructure inside and out- the portholes can go back in for a start, and for seconds then the wheelhouse can finally be bolted back down and all its windows and doors reinstated, and for thirds various other good things can happen. None of which involve angle grinders or metal preparation. Becky has long ago, and quite understandably developed quite an aversion to angle grinders, so the theory at least is to make ready for B to have a hands on role to play over the coming months, which should free me up at least some of the time to get involved again in the steelwork with Robin at the stern. There’s certainly a hell of a lot to do so I need all the help I can get, I mean, do I LOOK like a spider? No I don’t- any possible way to make progress really properly efficient has to be the way to go from now on I reckon, so thank christ for friends like Emma and Jan de mann, both of whom played a large part in helping us get all this extra paint on so quickly.