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MARLOW EXPLORER YACHTS
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Boats in Progress |
In the Line
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Make
it Blue
This story is
from one of our dealers who did an outstanding Awlgrip paint
job in their service yard on a pre-owned Marlow Explorer
57C.
Ray and
Cheryl Parker spent several months searching for the perfect
Motoryacht. They were drawn to the blue hulled Marlows.
The 2003 57C-2 was just right for them, with the exception
of a few details. The biggest of which was that she had an
Oyster White hull.
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The actual spraying of 6
gallons of Awlgrip in three carefully planned coats only
takes a few hours, the preparation for painting takes 2-3
people a little over 2 weeks. The process starts with
degreasing the hull with special cleaners and removing
boarding gates and transom access doors. The entire boat is
bagged to protect the superstructure from overspray. It
takes many hours to tape off the areas that should not be
painted. Then, every inch of the surface that will be
painted must be carefully sanded. This takes a solid week.
After the boat is washed of all sanding dust she is sprayed
with two coats of Awlgrip Primer. After the primer has
cured the entire boat is sanded again, except this time long
boards are used to keep the surface perfectly fair. A
special 180 degree radiused tool is used to keep the
sandpaper in contact with the plank lines (grooves that
simulate planks) in the hull. Special care is needed here,
all the primer must be sanded, but you do not want to break
the edges too much or the shadow lines will be imperfect.
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With the
initial sanding complete, the surface is washed again and
then Greg, our most experienced painter, looks at every
square inch of the hull with a pencil in hand ready to
circle any imperfections that must be addressed before
painting. Greg likes to paint early when the sea breeze is
non-existent and the threat of thunderstorms is low. The
night before painting, the hull is tacked down to remove all
traces of dust and the building floor is washed so dust will
not be kicked up during the painting process. Greg puts
some orange cones out in the driveway to keep delivery
trucks and forklifts from kicking up dust in the area. Greg
comes in at 5AM and prepares the equipment and paint. When
it is all ready to go he puts on a full protective suit, and
respirator. He fills the gun with the first of many pints
of mixed paint and starts shooting Blue Awlgrip. The
process is intense. You can not stop, you want to cover
every inch evenly moving along the hull from the caprail to
the bootstripe in 6' sections. Moving over and under the
scaffolding to gain access to the large surface area makes
this a bit of a dance. Once he makes it around the boat he
is 1/3 of the way done. The two part paint has a liquid
hardener much like epoxy. The three coats must be timed so
the layers go on at just the right time. If you put them on
too fast it will run or sag, if you wait to long you get a
dull finish. Temperature and humidity effect the cure time
so there is no substitute for experience here.
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The
change to a blue hull made it necessary to rethink the
bottom paint and boot stripe. The result is striking. She
now has a dark red bottom with a 1" bright white pin stripe
followed by a 3" Vivid Red Boot stripe and finally the blue
hull.
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