I’ve had a lot of help from Eric of Coconutz with getting Astraea’s sharp new paint job done. There was lots of sanding to prepare the surface and lots of epoxy putty and acetone used to fill cracks and dents and clean up the paint. Here are the steps I used to complete the paint job:

1. Remove caulk from the deck around the area to be painted
2. Remove duct tape residue from the window edges using rags soaked in acetone
3. Tape off areas around the edge where you don’t want to get any paint drips
4. Find cracks and chips in the gel coat
5. Grind the cracks and chips out on the edges
6. Fill the cracks with epoxy and smooth with a putty knife
7. Wait a day for the epoxy to harden
8. Sand the epoxy fair
9. Find more cracks and dents you missed the day before, fill with epoxy and smooth with a putty knife
10. Wait a day for the epoxy to harden
11. Sand the gelcoat with 100 grit sandpaper
12. Sand again with 220 grit sandpaper
13. Acetone wash the boat with rags 3 times to remove sanding dust
14. Roll and brush on the first coat of epoxy primer
15. Wait a day for the epoxy primer to dry
16. Sand smooth with 220 grit sandpaper
17. Acetone wash the boat with rags 3 times to remove sanding dust
18. Not have enough extra epoxy primer for a 2nd coat so go to West Marine and buy Interlux Pre-Kote, the primer that’s specially made to work with the Interlux Brightside polyurethane
19. Paint on the Pre-Kote
20. Sand smooth with 220 grit sandpaper
21. Acetone wash the boat with rags 3 times
22. Roll and tip the first coat of Brightside
23. Sand smooth with 330 grit sandpaper
24. Roll and tip the second coat of Brightside
25. Remove the blue painter’s tape

This painting project could have gone on and on for awhile –  sanding and painting and tipping to get a really beautiful and smooth surface – but this is a cruising boat, not a show boat (and it started raining, and we have more important things to do like install the windows and actually move aboard before the baby comes in less than two months!)

The project took longer than I expected, mainly because of the epoxy drying days and the days it took to remove all the caulk from the deck, but it was all well worth it. Astraea is looking much nicer now around the portlights with her new coat of paint. The projects continue on, even though we had visitors last weekend. My friend, Jeff, and Natalie’s friend, Emily, came to visit last weekend. It was great to hang out with friends, catch up and go sailing. More on that later.

In other, very important news, my Heineken hat has gone to meet its maker. I first bought the hat in Seoul, South Korea in 2008 when Natalie and I were vacationing there. We went with friends from her work at International Language School from Sasebo, Japan. It was a great trip getting to visit a new city, go shopping and eat real Korean BBQ. We bought my hat at a street market and even though my favorite beer isn’t Heineken, that the hat fit great. Unfortunately the cloth on the brim had worn away badly and was ratty looking so Natalie said it was time for a new hat. Goodbye old friend, we’ve had plenty of sailing adventures together. Now I need a new hat to take it’s place and it will probably be a Cheoy Lee hat we found on the boat.