Painting the boat

Before the paint job

After the paint job

Sharp looking fresh white paint job

Now we match the C-Quest which we share the dock with.

In the south almost all the boats are white, and it's for a good reason.  It's only May and the sun is extremely intense and hot.  A white boat reflects more light and thus absorbs less heat from the sun.  Our boat was built in Vancouver, Canada and before this job and never left the Pacific Northwest.  It was originally painted gray but the clear coat was flaking off. In a few places it was worn down to bare aluminum.  The obvious thing to do was to paint it white but it seemed unlikely that we would have the opportunity.

Because of a mix up with work permits we got the chance to paint today.  Hand painting a small boat like this is not easy.  After hours of scraping and sanding and masking we finally starting painting.  It was not a big area area but it took three of us a couple more hours to cut in all the windows and edges with a brush and roll the larger areas.  Much of it had to be done while precariously balanced on the narrow gunnel hanging one handed from a railing.

It needs another coat or two but it does look great.  We also added a special ceramic dust that is suppose to make it reflect more heat; it's the same idea as the ceramic tiles that kept the space shuttle from burning up on reentry into our atmosphere.  Not only do we blend in better with the local boats now but we will hopefully stay cooler too.  It was a good use of a sunny day.