Sanding and Painting the Bottom

I have started sanding the bottom.  You can see two areas where I sanded through to bare wood and had to patch the fiberglass.  Every time this happens it sets me back a few days while the epoxy cures.  I am not going to spend a lot of time trying to get the bottom extra smooth because it will take a lot of abuse and I don't want to sand the fiberglass too thin.  Also it will be out of sight, so in this case structural strength trumps appearance.

Here I've finished sanding as smooth as I want it.  I also sanded the sides up to a little over an inch because they will be painted up one inch from the bottom.  The sides were sanded much smoother.

The sides are masked one inch up from the bottom.  It's hard to see but I used automotive masking tape that does a very good job of allowing paint to get under it, so for the most part I will get a nice line.  In parts the paint may leak under the tape and I will have to scrape those areas.  Pre-taped plastic masking has been taped on top of the automotive tape to catch any drips or runs (there'd better not be any runs!).

The first coat of paint has been applied.  There are some thin areas, especially where I started the job and the roller was not saturated enough.  This will be taken care of with the second coat.

And here is the second coat.  I'm about out of paint so this will have to do it.  I used a very dark blue called "flag blue" by the manufacturer, Interlux.  It's actually quite a bit darker than it looks in the photo.

When the paint dries I'll be able to flip the boat right-side up.  I'm pretty sure that since I jumped ahead and drilled for the trailer then painted the bottom I will not have to turn it upside down again.