Still Grey

As the boat is nearly ready for the second stage of the build, which will involve it being fitted out on hard standing in Sawbridgeworth for the next 6 months (MINIMUM!), we wanted to get a coating on top of the primer. XR&D graciously let us use their hanger for the weekend, though our target was to get it done in a day. We set up camp on Friday evening in Travel lodge Retford, after making the long drive up North.
With Adam as lead painter in tow, we arrived at XR&D base on Saturday morning at around 8.30am.
The first stage was prep, which involved lots of sweeping and then using tack rags to get the surface clean. Then taping from the end of the blacking, we would paint everything above the gunwale. Then we painted: the idea is to keep the wet edge moving, only letting areas dry as you finish them, but this gets complicated by the fact that you don't want to over roller any particular area and ruin the finish. Then add in the fact that you have to walk across much of the area you want to paint, it becomes a harder tasks than it looks.
We had to work out a methodical to route to take when painting, with surprisingly minimal arguing we found a rhythem and worked our way through the boat.

The shopping list:

• Jotun Hardtop HB BS381C 676 Light Weatherwork Grey 5l - x7 (worth noting we only need 2 tins for 1 coat). 
• Polyurethane Thinner 1.0l 
• 4" and 9" foam rollers 
• Tack rags