Hey Joe, where y'going with that spray gun in your hand?

Coat number four went on this morning. Here's Joe in action... I can't help thinking that there's a fair amount of varnish in the air and perhaps less going on the boat (the mask is essential and the overalls pretty important, too), but it's still looking better every time).

Edward the Compressor is brilliant: it cuts in automatically to give a constant pressure. Just in case anyone's interested, 4 coats required a litre of varnish (therefore about 250 ml of varnish combined with about 50-60 ml of thinner per coat), so we are probably going to use 4 tins in total to spray in and out, plus a fifth to do the fittings (seats, knees and rudder). That will also call for 4 or 5 tins of thinner, too, so around 2 litres of that. Having said that, I suspect we can refine the settings on the spray gun to give a tighter delivery. 

I notice that there appear to be some strange markings on the transom (the bit nearest you) - in reality these are not at all in evidence and the mahogany is every bit as beautiful as we hoped. It's a shame we have to put the rudder fittings on there.

ET's Tent

It was a major job, clearing out the sawdust, scrap wood and Brendan's machinery from under the strongback. This was followed by creating a hermetically sealed environment wherein the spraying could take place without risk of dust or harmful bacteria. I donned gloves  and overalls and toyed with the idea of wearing one of those caps they use in operating theatres... It was very stuffy, so I opened the door, at which point I realised my glasses weren't steamed up, but instead had an evenly applied coating of varnish, giving the world a distinctly blurred look. Or an indistinctly blurred look.

I suspect Joe and I were both quite nervous about the big moment when we attempted spraying the varnish for the first time. Somehow, we always managed to find a bit more sanding or other preparatory work rather than crack on with it. Everyone said it was a tricky job, not to be attempted by incompetents and so forth.

Perhaps it was luck, plus plenty of research and good advice from all quarters, but it turned out to be very easy, very successful and hugely satisfying. We've only done the first two layers, but already the effect is wonderful. The only frustration is that it only takes ten minutes to apply a coat, clean the spray gun and ask Kim to put the kettle on - then we have to wait a day before we can do it all again.

So here are some shots of the boat from today: