The first coat of primer went on and I was not a happy camper. It looked horrible. Then the second coat went on, and I could finally start to relax that maybe this won't look like hell after all. I need to do more sanding (quelle surprise) but should have the topcoat paint on the deck by Sunday. I hope to maybe start the the non-skid taping by Monday. I think I need to give it 24 hours to dry before taping. Some other lessons learned:
1) No matter how great the company and how fabulous the food, never ever have your friend and her black- haired dog over just before the big paint job.
2) Learn how to spray paint.
3) The Gill knee pads are great for sailing, but not so good for kneeling for 4 hours straight.
4) If the chandlery is out of the short handled rollers, go somewhere else to find them because the long-handled ones are going to get tiring soon.
5) Make sure to have pen in hand when talking to the paint rep after he rapid-fire rattles off "just do X,Y, Z then L,M,N,O,P followed by A,B,C and of course D." Uh yeah, that's what I was I planning.
6) If you're going to tent the boat with tarps, figure out a way to allow standing room.
8) If the technical data sheet says to abrade with 100-120 grit, then use 100-120 grit because 80 grit is really too aggressive.
9) Use metric because calculating12% of 1 quart is just stupid math.
10) There's no recovery after resting a gloved hand on wet primer except for more glorious sanding.
11) The workers in the boatyard don't get paid enough to do this work.
