Day 19 - Prepping for sanding and applying first sealer coat

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Now that my varnish is complete, I move on to painting the hull, keel and rudder. This process starts with taping off the deck. First a piece across the transom:


Then I took a piece of mylar drop cloth and traced the outline of the deck with a sharpie:


After cutting that shape out, I applied it to the deck with blue painter's tape, starting at the bow and working my way around the inside of the toerail, making sure I am getting a really good bond and clean edge where the two meet:




Here, the tape off of the deck is complete:


Now out to the garage for the painting. I used little painter's triangle to hold the boat up of the work surface. And yes, my wife made me move the car before spray-painting began:



In my case, I choose to use spray Kilz as a sealant. For a myriad of reasons it is a great sealer. You could brush it on if you prefer. I simply used spray cans. 


Keep the coats light so you don't get runs. One thing to note about spraying from a can is that if you are too far from the surface and the temperature and humidity not ideal, the paint can dry before it even hits the surface resulting in a rough and powdery finish. That happened to me. It is easy enough to sand smooth but easy enough to avoid by finding the right distance and rate of spray can movement:



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