Over the last 4 weeks or so I’ve been painting the hull in preparation for hull turnover. Things were moving along steadily if slowly, then Easter and School holidays arrived and a 10 day family camping trip up the NSW South Coast bought everything to a halt for a bit. Anyway I think I was glad to have a break from the sanding, filling and undercoating, I’m looking forward to getting back to making stuff as soon as the hull is turned over.
As far as painting goes and choosing a brand and paint system I was a bit bamboozled by all the choices. I read this Paints & How to Tips article by Andrew Denman a well respected timber boat builder from Tasmania. He uses Altex single pack paints, but I couldn’t find this brand easily in Melbourne, so in the end I went with Norglass which was readily available and had the colours I wanted.
Speaking of colours, I’ve had a colour scheme in mind ever since I began this build. I’ve always liked a dark navy hull, white boot stripe and aqua/teal below the waterline so now it was time to stop thinking about it and just do it.
Two Pack Under Coat
Second Coat of Under Coat
Show a girl a boat and immediately they want to vacuum!
I went the Two Pack primer/undercoat mostly for its below the waterline durability. It wasn’t hard to apply with a short nap gloss roller, it also sanded quiet easily. One day I might want to paint antifoul below the water line and that requires a two pack primer/undercoat. For now my top coats are single pack marine gloss enamel as the boat wont be in the water for extended periods of time.
On goes the Teal, this only required two coats.
Teal below the waterline
Teal painted to a rough waterline
This is about as far as I got before the camping trip!
So yesterday after a two week break I got back on the job and taped a waterline and put a first coat of Admirality Blue on.
Marking the waterline
I’ll do a post later on painting the boot top stripe and how I did the waterline. This pic gives you a rough idea though.
Taped up and ready to go
More bits of tape
First coat of Admirality Blue (I think I just like the name of this colour)
Fancy colured whale!
From the front
Thought I better paint the rudder while I was at it.
Rudder and Rudder Head first coats
I’m not convinced I’ll get away with two coats on the Admirality Blue, I’ll put a second coat on this week and see how it’s looking.
My Stir Ven Build 
Hi Mike, I’m really enjoying your blog. I stumbled across Francois Vivier’s site a few months ago and am now considering an Ebihen 15 myself. Something for retirement. Somewhere in the blog you mentioned a boat building book you refer to on occasion. I cannot find the reference, despite reading through the blog a couple of times. May I ask what was the name and author ? Anyway all the best and I await with keen interest to see the photos of the Stir Ven in the water. Have you thought of a name for her yet ?
By: Terry Chase on May 4, 2010
at 7:49 am
Hi Terry,
Glad you’re enjoying the blog. The name of the book you’re probably referring to is How to Build Glued-Lapstrake Wooden Boats by John Brooks & Ruth Ann Hill. I’ve seen it available on the Wooden Boat Magazine website and on Amazon . It would be the perfect reference for an Ebihen build (clinker version). If you did the strip plank version the book CanoeCraft by Ted Moores is a pretty definitive reference on strip planking applicable to any build.
Having now built in both methods I’m a big fan of the clinker/lapstrake method. Hope this helps.
Regarding a name for my Stir Ven it’s a regular topic of discussion around the dinner table and on long car trips. My daughters have managed to come up with ridiculous names for all my man toys such as as Beoncé, Elvis, Thorpedo etc for surboards, cars called Chester motorbikes called Gomez, but a name for the boat has elluded them to date. As time goes by I’m sure something will make it self apparent.
Cheers
I’ll make sure I keep the blog up to date and feel free to ask any questions or just post a comment.
Mike
By: Mike Randall on May 4, 2010
at 9:41 am