I sanded the bridgedeck on Wednesday. I feathered the tapes out which means I sanded the edge off the step that the tape makes in order to make the transition from no tape to the full height of the tape (less than 1mm) seamless so that you cant feel or see it. Once that is done a light coat of highbuild could be all the deck needs to finish before painting.
On Thursday, after a trip into Sydney on business I stopped in at Scomar in Dee Why and bought 4 litres of highbuild (Jotun Penguard 2 pack) for $75 about $25 less than the other boat shops around. Still very expensive stuff but 25% cheaper is worth going a little out of your way for. It is quite galling to paint this expensive stuff on just to sand most of it back off again, so the discount was some consolation.
I managed to apply only one coat out of the 4 litres. I though I would get 2 coats out because of how much I got out of 20 litres last time (I did 3 coats on each hull with 20 litres). The underwing looks very fair with a coat of highbuild on. But on Friday afternoon I started sanding the highbuild back and it was clear after sanding just 2 of the sections that 1 coat of highbuild would not be enough and because of the cost of highbuild I decided (on James advice) that a light coat of bog would be better and if I managed to get the deck fair with this then I would be able to paint straight over the light bog.
I briefly contemplated not bothering and just sanding the highbuild back and painting because under the bridgedeck is not going to be visible but I decided that for just a few extra hours work I will be more happy with the results even though it means I probably wont get the deck up before I go to the boat show. In the end a lot of good boatbuilding is about discipline and patience. If you have the discipline to do the extra little bits and the patience to wait for each stage to be fully finished before going on the the next the results will be there in the end. It could be the difference between a good boat and a stunning boat.
So today I mixed up very runny bog and painted the stiffeners with a brush and then using a painting tool I bought at Kmart for $4 as a squeegee I spread a thin coat of bog over the highbuild.
The light coat of bog is thin enough that you can still see the white highbuild underneath. I will sand it back tomorrow. Hopefully it wont need anything more before I paint it. I will be making the paint non slip so I can be a little forgiving on the underdeck but I still need it to be fair without any blemishes in the finish.