Paint prep in full swing...

Well well well - has it been a busy week or what? I'm a little late on updating the blog but we have made another big push ahead and as always, all our time has been dedicated to the paint prep and by the time evening arrives it's hard to move, let alone type ;-)

Our transom looks rather beautiful and is looking like the perfect platform for any and all of our water activities - Peter is already envisioning himself launching off the back! As with all areas on the boat so far there was the construction phase, fibreglass phase, fairing phase, spot fill phase and epoxy primer coats to fill any last pin holes. Have a look:

And with the transom at that stage it was time to get started on the remaining paint prep for the topsides which involved removing the life lines and toe rails, taking off the bow rollers and any other fittings, plugging the hundreds of bolt holes in the deck with earplugs to keep the dust inside at bay, wash the topsides down with sugar soap to remove any oil or grease, apply a guide coat and yes - start sanding! What a bonus it is to have such an awesome working platform around the boat! Most of the sanding we could do from there with only the lower parts requiring the good old fashioned scaffold planks on old oil drums :-) We managed to sand the topsides in 2 days between just the two of us and while I hand sanded the detail pin stripe today, Peter went around with the grinder prepping any spots showing signs of requiring our attention. The next phase involves repairing these spots, followed by the usual fairing, sanding and spot-filling before we can give it a last detail sand and eventually start putting primer on. A long way to go but we have already made quite a good dent in the work load so as sore as we are - we are pretty chuffed with our progress as well! Have a look at some of the pictures below and watch this space for updates xx