Earning our stripes

Stripes.

There are a number of them on this boat that we have to deal with. Starting at the bottom, there is the boot stripe. Originally there was an accent stripe above a wider 4-inch boot stripe and then a thin area with nothing and then the bottom paint. The accent stripe was still there (mostly) but the tape that Silverton used to create the wide boot top was gone and someone had simply painted a new black stripe in its place.  We applied our trusty heat gun and removed any tape stripe that remained.

If this is boring and complicated, we agree, but screw it up and the boat will look odd. We have to finish off this area where the hull meets the water.

We masked off a section and painted a test stripe using the same color we were going to use above on the cabin sides.

That looks as though it will work. Frances is the taping expert and based on this trial area, she'll tape off the top and bottom of the boot top all the way around the hull.  Then we'll paint it.

The bottom paint will come up that faint line below the boot stripe. That will require another taping,

Then there are the cabin sides to deal with. Silverton again applied tape to create accent stripe along under the windows.  Must have looked nice when the boat was new but now, most of it is gone.  We couldn't get off what tape was remaining even with our heat gun so we sanded the edges and masked the area.

This came out OK except for one little spot.  We'll get rid of that once the paint hardens.

We've started to put things back together now. There are fewer parts on the salon floor looking for a home. Some tools have removed. There is still a lot to do but we can now see being back in the water in early May.