Watching Paint Dry

We are only watching paint dry, but it is getting to be pretty exciting!

The non-skid is getting done. These are the non-slip areas on the deck. They are textured (and often a complimentary colour) so that sailors' feet can get a better grip on a moving, sometimes wet, deck.

The order in which our progress is made is dependant on weather(temperature, humidity), manpower availablitiy, and exchange rates.

In order to do the non-skid we need to tape off the areas to be covered. This is made easier as we only have to follow the raised edges of the previous non-skid. Nonetheless it is a time consuming and painstaking job. Frankie did the first pass for us. Then Chris and Frankie put a thick primer coat on with a roller, letting it texture the surface. Only every other non-skid patch was painted first, so that the boys had somewhere to stand while painting. Then the tape was taken off those parts, and the remaining areas were taped. And painted.

Half the areas taped and primed

Taping the side deck

Because he acted before the first coat was completely cured, Chris was able to paint over the last set of patches with a dark grey primer without removing the tape first. Once that was on, we took the tape off that and got ready to retape the first areas which had dried too much to have this done. They would need to be sanded first, then primed with the dark grey.
Then the tape will be removed and everything retaped again for the final pale grey coat.

But we are finally seeing something close to the finished results - it's exciting!

The dark grey primer on half