Painting alfresco
After two successful jobs in the wet dock in early spring, it was time to leave the relative comfort, convenience and ‘climate controlled’ indoor environment, and tackle a couple of outdoor painting jobs - painting alfresco.
The first job was repainting the gunwales and decks of a characterful 50ft widebeam called General Bob. The General had been booked in to be blacked on the hard standing at Iver boatyard, and it made sense to tackle the gunwales and decks while out of the water.
General Bob about to set off from Packet Boat to Iver down the scenic Slough arm
The forecast was for a relatively settled period of sunshine, with daytime temperatures in the mid 20s (degrees C) and night time not falling below the magic 5 degrees C. Ideal you may think. But the exposed position of the boat on the hardstanding to the sun, and the diurnal range, created their own challenges.
To avoid the peak of the sunshine, I opted to start painting early each morning (around 7am), allowing me to get a full coat on before the blistering heat of the overhead sun started to heat up the steel to an impractical temperature. This required wiping down the heavy morning dew resulting from the ~20 degrees C difference between daytime highs and night time lows before starting.
Preparing General B’s decks and gunwales on the hardstanding at Iver Boatyard
Rust inhibitor and primer applied in challenging temperature conditions
The finished result, nice!
The second job was a series of rust ‘patching’ on a shorter widebeam within the marina. While the surface area of the ‘patches’ was significantly smaller than the previous job, the process was very similar - systematically removing rust and loose paint, cleaning and keying the surfaces, applying rust inhibitor, masking up and applying (Craftmaster) primer, undercoat and topcoat.
The high temperatures, direct sunlight exposure, and wide diurnal range (morning dew) again posed practical challenges, requiring early starts to get the majority of the paint on before the full strength of the summer sun hit the steel, causing things to rapidly heat up.
In total, we tackled the top (cream/ off-white) band on the boat, several smaller rust spots around the stern, from rope friction etc., and the weed hatch cover and few small areas in the engine bay.
Final coat of paint applied, masking tape removed, et voilà - nice tidy patches
While the paint was drying, I was able to remove, sand down and re-varnish the front and back doors using a quality Owatrol wood stain and protector, working under the shade of the trees to make the most of the day and lovely weather.
Stern and bow doors sanded back, masked up and ready to re-varnish
While sunshine is certainly preferable to rain, high temperatures (air and substrate) resulting from direct sunshine, can certainly pose its own challenges for painting outside!! Finding a shady spot to moor up - under a bridge or such like, certainly isn’t a bad idea for the outdoor summer painter.
