The Sanding Continues

They say that the key to a perfect paint job is the preparation, and I am sincerely hoping that that is true, after spending the last 2 weeks sanding 4 coats of paint off the hull, cabin house and cockpit. While the boat not might look great right now to the casual observer, I can see that it is getting very close to being primed and painted. One of my friends asked me if the boat was supposed to look "orange and splotchy" and at this point, it is.

After spending many too many hours sanding unnoticeable details, I quickly hit the starboard toerail so that it could start looking a little better the other day. I think it makes progress a little more noticeable.

In preparation for painting, I removed all the exterior teak except for the toerails.and a fair amount of hardware yesterday. This will make the painting easier, and the teak can be varnished at my house while the boat is being painted. Below are the bags of some of the hardware I removed; hopefully the labels will help me get the boat back in one piece eventually.

Here is a shot showing the starboard toerail, and the cockpit coamings right after I took them off.

Here is a shot of the cockpit as I removed everything; needless to say, it doesn't look very pretty at the time.

But after spending a day crouched in the cockpit grinding through much too much paint, things were looking better.

I spent the majority of the day sanding the remaining parts of the cabin house and the cockpit, and while a few of the corners need to be finished, for the most part it is back down to bare glass, and I think is looking a lot better now.

This is a shot of the cabin house, with the companionway woodwork removed.

And finally, here is a shot showing the bow, which hopefully looks a little encouraging.

Hoping the weather cooperates for the next two days so I can get a lot done before heading back into Cambridge....