Handrails: Day 2

A cooler and duller morning, perfect for painting, so I got on with it.  First I had to clean off a sort of sappy stuff that the nearby tree had deposited on the boat, then I got going with the undercoat.  On the advice of Phil Speight I’m using a black undercoat, which will apparently help the red appear redder — although he wouldn’t say it would stop it fading!  At least it means you can really see where you’ve been.

The trickiest bit is the inside of the handrails, because I found it had to be done by brush rather than roller.  I will do another coat tomorrow, as now it’s dry I can see it’s a bit thin in places.

The red on the bow flashes has faded too, so I thought I’d smarted them up.  This involved kneeling on the bow and hanging upside down to mask up the diamonds.  For the curved bits, I traced templates and cut them out of a cereal box.  They didn’t work as well as the masking tape so I had a bit of tidying up to do, but at least it was better than freehand.  I also took the top chains off the button fender to do the stem post.  Here’s the before and after.

I’ve also redone the red diamonds on the roof, and they look good too.  The thrill of taking off the masking tape is something else!

It has become increasingly sunny and warm this afternoon.  Some boats have left, so I pulled back a bit.  Mostly this was to get out from under the tree, but getting a little further away from the screaming toddlers on the boat in front was a bonus.

I’ve been invited out to my cousin Catherine’s this evening, so I’ll be walking back to the marina to get the car.