Becoming my boat

"Create your own visual style...let it be unique for yourself and yet identifiable for others."
~Orson Welles

When you look out into the marina, it is easy to spot the one orange boat.  She stands out.  

Finally, we finished painting her!  It took 5 coats of paint to cover the dark green.  Because weather did not cooperate, it took quite a while to get all 5 coats on (in hindsight, I should have sanded off more of the green).  

After the painting was finished, it was time to remove the tape.  This was not an easy job--it had been left on for too long.  We used green tape, blue tape and the traditional beige masking tape.  The type of tape really didn't have much effect on how easy/difficult it was to remove.  What did make a difference was the amount of exposure to the sun.  The tape on the shady side of the boat was much easier to remove.  Also, the tape that was completely covered with paint was easier to remove.

In this pic, the easiest tape to remove was the tape in the middle (because it was completely covered with paint).  The tape on the top was the most difficult--it was not covered with paint, and it was folded over the edge of the boat:

Luckily, I had help removing the tape:

These are my friends Nancy and Beth.  This was such a tedious job, and I was so thankful for their help!

There were two areas we changed the design of the stripes:

1)  We widened the bottom stripe on the top of the boat so that it was parallel with the rest of the stripes: 

This is her with the green paint.  Notice the stripe on the bridge (the very top)...

The stripe on the bridge is widened--the bottom of the stripe is parallel to the lines of the boat.

2) We painted the triangle between the low stripes and high stripes to make the color flow better:

Here it is before we painted the triangle (it was taped off in this pic, though)

And here it is with the triangle painted.  I like the way it makes the stripes look more continuous.

There is some sticky residue left from the tape in some places.  I think I will try goo gone to see if it comes off without damaging the paint.

Overall, I really like the orange, and I am happy with the finished product!  She will look great when we add the new graphics with her name in the Spring:

Another thing to celebrate is that the contract I have with the previous owner is just about fulfilled--and the title is now in my name!  

The interior is moving along, too.  More on that in my next post...But, like the outside, the inside will have its own visual style.  It will be unique, as well!