To Paint Or Not To Paint

[HS]

Gentlemen,

I'm nearing the end of a cleanup of an 18ft Port Phillip pilot boat...clinker kauri on spotted gum. 50 years of accummulated paint have been scraped off, new ply/dynel deck fitted, some new timbers laminated in place, motor rebuilt and about a squillion other less significant tasks completed.

After the old paint was stripped out of the insides (within 2 weeks of the boat coming out of the water) I immediately primed with redlead and then sealed it with an oil based undercoat. As a result, the only bare timber showing is a 1 to 2mm line at the laps below the waterline.

Given that the boat's been out of water for 6 months now and a little daylight is showing between some planks, my question is should I complete the painting at this stage or wait until after the hull has been in the water a while and tightened up? I feel that having paint run between the laps of the dry hull will compromise the seal when the hull does take up. I suspect that it wouldn't matter on a hull with heavier scantlings but on this boat...well I dunno. Any ideas?

Hans

[Bob Cleek]

Depends on how much paint runs between the laps, but I'd say you're probably right. Makes for a much neater paint job, as well... not to mention that it wouldn't be the first time bilge paint ran through lapstrake seams and down those nice newly finished topsides! LOL I'd give her a light base coat and then let her swell up before I shot for the finish coat.

[HS]

Thanks Bob, back into the water she goes!

Hans

[Bruce Hooke]

Of course once she's in the water and everything's swelled up the wood may be too wet for painting in which case you may have to wait until you haul her out again and at that point get the paint on after things have dried out a little but before the seams start to open up much. None-the-less, I'd agree that painting now is asking for trouble.