Black Pearl Project - Goin' Grey and then Gettin' Glossy

Well, it's been two weeks since my last blog entry. It's a been two weeks of sanding and prepping for painting.

I decided that I wanted a little extra protection on the stems so I ran some 6oz x 2" tape up each end. I filled the tape with epoxy thickened with colloidal silica for better abrasion resistance. I even managed to feather the tape so that it's not visible.

Tape being feathered but not yet finished..

With the stems taped, I moved onto the final sanding. Not much to say other than I went through a lot of paper and time before I came to a point where I was satisfied with the finish. When you go with gloss black you have to be prepared for the paint to show up every blemish and imperfection!!! In the images below the boat looks a dull grey. If I were to wet it out with water, it would go a deep satin black. Very nice looking.

I wanted to be able to paint both the hull and deck at the same time so I rigged up a kayak rotisserie where I could paint the hull then rotate the boat to paint the deck.

The Grey Pearl!! Prepped for painting.

The cockpit coaming is not yet finished but still looks good. Inside will painted as well so it'll look a lot neater than this once completed.

The Grey Pearl on the rotisserie.

Upside down and ready to paint.

I'm going with Interlux Brightside - a one part polyurethane paint. It's pretty easy to use and gives a nice deep, high gloss finish.

White "globe" in the middle of the image is a dust particle reflecting from the camera flash.

Rotated and deck finished. Bow view.

From the stern.

Starboard quarter.

Starboard bow.

Stern shot - showing nice gloss!!

Aft deck, deck plate opening and cockpit.

Cockpit coaming and foredeck.

I have not decided how many coats of paint will be required. The first coat went on with amazing coverage as the boat was already black underneath. I'm thinking that two more coats will give a very deep coating. 

We're in the home stretch now.

Thanks for dropping by,

Sean

Black Pearl Project - Glassing the Coaming and Deck

So here's the week in review. In my last post, I had the coaming roughed in. The next step was to trim it down to the right height - 3/4" -  and sand it down. In the pictures below you will see the deck sanded as well.

Coaming trimmed and sanded.

From the aft - showing Bomar deck plate.

I decided to go with a full glass cockpit riser and lip using the wood as a base. I used 1/2" polystyrene foam  Home Depot as the mold.

Foam tacked in place with hot melt glue.

 To make the first layer of glass easy to fit, I went with short pieces run vertically.

Vertical glass!

 I used pigmented epoxy on the coaming.

Glass wetted out.

After the first layer of glass epoxy. Excess not trimmed.

After three layers, the excess was trimmed. A light sanding as well.

After 10 layers of glass and epoxy, I determined the whole unit was stiff enough. I feel compelled to point out that in the middle of this job there was a potentially "fatal" hiccup to the whole thing but it all worked out in the end. (Thank gawd that golden horsehoe is still firmly in place) In a nutshell I wanted to round the coaming but decided to do so AFTER I had three layers of glass down. A careful rounding using a rasp would have been more prudent but in my haste, I took a saw and proceeded to hack away - rather crudely, I must add!!. It was looking pretty grim for a while but it actually worked out very nice!!  I now have a nicely shaped, i.e., rounded, lip on my cockpit rim!!

Between the jigs and reels, the coaming took me from Sunday to Thursday to complete. With the coaming done, I did the final sanding on the deck in anticipation of glassing.

I almost had second thoughts about the Black Pearl being All-Black Pearl at this point. Seeing the deck all sanded and contrasting so nicely against the black hull, I almost decided to leave the deck "au natural". Discussions with Cheryl ensued. Cheryl loves the look of the wood and suggested that if I left the deck unpainted, at least people would know that the boat was a stripper!! I was not entirely convinced. Read on to see the verdict . . .

Cockpit coaming with foam removed.

Foredeck sanded.

Sanded deck ready for glass.

Good Friday was the day for glassing the deck. I laid the glass on the deck and the Shroud of Turin immediately sprang to mind. If I lifted the glass would the image of my boat be forever seen on it??  I waited for the lightening bolt to strike me dead!!

The Shroud of Paradise

The Shroud of Paradise - foredeck!

I made my final decision and the images below show the outcome. The Black Pearl will be just that -a full-on   black boat!!

The "Oreo" boat!!!

The All-Black Pearl!!

I've now got three coats of pigmented epoxy on and after one more will determine whether the boat is ready for sanding.

Thanks for dropping by,

Sean