Katona

Hello!

This week, roof painting! Or attempts at it… because I’ve chosen to do it with 2 different colours, and some with anti-slip grit, that’s 3 combinations, each needing 2 coats, drying time and good weather.

The paint I’m using is Sigmadur 520, a 2-pack that needs mixing in a silly ratio: 88:12 of base to hardener. Which is fine if you’re doing the whole lot, but I only needed a little each time for the handrails. I started with 750ml (way too much), but accurately measuring 660ml of goopy paint with 90ml of the hardener wasn’t gonna happen. So: weight, but the data sheet only had the combined mass density making that impossible.

Luckily I found the safety sheets for each component, hidden away with all the fun toxological stuff. Did you know that feeding a population of average lab rats ~1.3 grams of xylene kills half of them? Of course the paint itself wasn’t tested, but the ingredients have known figures. For humans we only have estimates, and it looks like I’d need to drink the whole 480ml tub of hardener for irresurrectable issues.

Buried in there I found the mass densities: 1.39 for the base, and 1.07 for the hardener, and thus I could weigh it accurately. Modern chemistry is a bloody wonder, can you imagine if I had to mix ground bugs with tree sap for this?!

I did two coats early in the week, and it’s the best this handrail’s ever looked:

Unfortunately I could see a few dots of rust building up — parts where the roof had pitted, and the primer didn’t hold — so on Wednesday evening I stripped those back to re-prime generously.

I had also ordered some hatch runners, a “standard” size with 6 ft strips of brass. Then I went to try them on, and… the hatch runs on 1900mm rails?! Literally 71mm too long, wtf. Maybe I should measure more often, the “vibes first, measure second” approach keeps biting me.

On Friday I was about to paint around the roof’s edge where I don’t want the grippy stuff, then God started taking a leak… this June weather is fucking with me, but I got it done on Saturday afternoon instead, with the second coat this here Sunday morning. Just 2 more rounds until the roof is done!

Yes, the mooring angle is intentional…

With time to spare, I finally got around to welding in the porthole windows, and OH MY GOD. They’re bloody beautiful.

I spattered a bit with the welding so I’ve blacked them around inside; waiting for that to dry until I put the glass on. The red areas are where I’ve put some anti-rust primer before I re-insulate, and I stripped back some of the old insulation for new battens.

I’m so happy with them, and it feels like I’m quickly getting to the “re-build the boat” part. But the water tank is looming…

Until next Sunday!

- Nick