The painting of the mast and the priming the hull continues...Friday evening I was able to get another coat of paint on the port side of the mast before heading home and prepping for weekend work on Biscuit. At this point the starboard side has three coats of finish paint, with one final to be applied. The port side the mast was the target Friday evening and it received its second coat, after a light scuffing with 240-grit paper. This was an opportunity to get another coat of paint on the port side of the mast as I was on property doing unrelated boat work.

Saturday morning was a fairly early start, and really needs to be given the tropical heat Florida is subject to this time of year. I began by sanding the fairing filler I applied to the cockpit seat hatch gutters - and would account for nearly half of my time on biscuit today, given how narrow the gutters are. This was all hand-sanding work with a lot of tedious curves and transitions. Where I ended the work for the day on the gutters was all filler sanded and another round of spot filler in obvious pinholes that availed themselves to me. No doubt the first application of primer will reveal more...

I then moved on to the hull priming. With 240-grit paper and the human hand, I set out scuffing the surface the previous application of now cured primer. I worked the transom first, and then the starboard counter and along the hull towards the bow. At the bow, I turned to port and continued aft to finish at the port counter. When I completed the sanding of the third coat of primer, I vacuumed the surface thoroughly and followed that by a solvent-wash to remove any remaining sanding debris. Back in the shop, I gathered and mixed a 32oz pot of primer, placed some reducer in a separate container to add later, and waited for the 15-minute induction period. I made my way back over to the paint booth with supplies in hand. At the end of the 15-minute induction, I mixed in the reducer and begin to apply the primer. Alexseal is a great product and I highly recommend it to yacht painters, pro and all!

I closed the paint booth for the night and headed back over to the shop and pole barn for continuation on the mast. With 240-grit paper, I covered the mast fairly quickly, scuffing the surface to obtain "tooth" for the paint to adhere to. With a small pot of TotalBoat's Wet Edge and with a foam brush, I applied the finish paint, brushing into surface applied just prior. Biscuit's mast now has three coats applied to its entire surface. I will be positioning the mast to apply subsequent coats to both the starboard and port sides going forward, and with the aim to complete in the coming week.

Total Hrs: 6.5