Groundhog Day, the Paint Prep Version

Our days are in a predictable rhythm. Wake up, get coffee, put a coat of varnish on the various pieces of woodwork that inhabit the kitchen/workspace. Then we head to the boat for scraping. And sanding. And maybe some epoxy work. Then more sanding. More scraping.

Then tomorrow, we’ll do it again. About the only thing that changes is that we flip the varnish pieces over. Every third day they get sanded in prep for the next coat.

The way we prep for varnish is maybe a little different. We’ve got a mix of outside pieces (the tillers and the outside sides of the hatch boards) and inside ones (the new table Jeremy built for Calypso) but at this point, six coats in, we’re still really building. The first three coats were thinned on an ever-decreasing schedule (we followed what Epifanes recommends), and then it was on to full test stuff. In between these first few coats, instead of sanding, we use green scrubbies (yeah, those kitchen Scotchpad things). This puts a reasonable tooth into the varnish without taking too much off.

*Maroon scrubby time! The vodka box is used to protect the varnished side from the rough table.*

3M Scotch-Brite pads, the official 3M ones anyway, have sandpaper-equivalent grits, all color-dependent. Green ones are from the kitchen division and don’t have a good equivalent, but we think they’re on the order of 150 or so. The maroon ones, like in the above photo, are 320 grit.

After 5 or 6 coats, we go at the varnish pretty hard with 220 sandpaper, followed by a good scuff with the maroon scrubby pad. This knocks down any high spots and grain that is still visible; the next coat will fill in nicely. We are shooting for 8 coats or so for all the pieces.

As far as the hull goes, Jeremy’s worked like a fiend replacing rotten wood and building the new taffrail. He’s installed the new pieces on the starboard side; just yesterday we installed the new stanchion posts and backing board for the port side hawse hole. In the next day or so he’ll put the port side bulwark piece into place. Meanwhile, we’re scraping off failed paint and sanding, first with 60 and then with 120 grit sandpaper. All raw wood will be saturated with penetrating epoxy before being primed and painted.

We have to keep reminding ourselves that this needs to be a #goodenough prep job. The boomkin and bowsprit from last summer are pieces of art, ready to be inspected from 2 inches away. If we went for that level of perfection, we’d be sanding and sanding for the next three months or more. Getting into the nooks and crannies is not easy; making it look good from 5 feet away is just fine.

At least that’s what we’re trying to tell ourselves.