Hatches and cabin top projects – Week 3
No, we didn’t finish painting the cabin top with Interlux Intergrip last weekend. I washed the boat Friday in preparation for painting on Saturday. The plan was for both of us to start early Saturday masking, get the first coat of Intergrip on and maybe the second (and final) coat on in one day because it was supposed to rain on Sunday. What happened was Rich spent Saturday morning fixing the forward hatch that I broke on Friday (oops). When I washed the boat on Friday I dogged the hatches as usual. What I didn’t notice until I finished was that the Lexan glass had popped up on one corner of the forward hatch. When Rich got home he realized that he had installed the lift arm backwards. The knob to tighten the dog down pushed up against the glass and lifted up the corner.
So instead of two of us prepping the boat on Saturday I was on my own until Rich got the hatch done. First thing Saturday I did the solvent wipe-down of the area to be painted; then masked off the areas that weren’t getting painted. Around 1 o’clock Rich finished repairing the hatch and joined me in masking off the cabin top. Masking is harder than it sounds. Once the tape is on, we have to cut out the rounded corners and other rounded areas like around the pad-eyes. We were rushing so it didn’t turn out as nice as we would have liked.
Painting with Intergrip
At 2 o’clock we started painting on the Interlux Intergrip non-skid. There are a couple of ways to apply it. You can mix the grit into the paint and roll it on or you can roll (or spray) the paint, then sprinkle the grit into the wet paint. We opted for the latter method, which is what Rich did when he painted the sea hood. I rolled the paint and Rich sprinkled the grit. Of course the breeze picked up around 2:30 and grit was all over the place. Let me tell you, that stuff is really slick to walk on when it’s loose. I almost crashed a couple of times with the tray of paint and roller in my hands!
By 3 o’clock we were done painting. The cabin top looks chalky and mottled, but the last coat should take care of that. We considered leaving the masking tape in place and painting the final coat on Sunday, but I didn’t want to leave the tape on since we’ve had problems with it. And Rich wanted to go fishing on Sunday so we peeled up the tape and were done by 4 0’clock.
Sunday it rained. Luckily the paint was dry by then. The weather should be good this coming weekend. We plan to re-mask the whole thing again and paint on the final coat. I can’t wait to be finished with this project.