But first, a paint update.
I'm not sure why, but the oil-based primer I got from Home Depot truly doesn't like to dry in cool weather. The propane heater made a huge difference.
I ended up with two layers of primer. Then I got my finish coat: Behr Interior/Exterior High Gloss Enamel. I picked a dark blue from the Behr color chart called "Night Tide".
Where the primer took forever to dry, the enamel dried almost instantly. I painted it in sections of about four square feet, using a small, smooth roller and then tipping off the finish with a sponge brush. I'm not really concerned with the quality of the finish on the bottom. This was mainly about practicing for when it comes time to do the deck and the sides.
All told, it went pretty well. Like I said, that stuff dries FAST, so if you are going to tip, don't get too far ahead of yourself of the paint will be too dry.
I ended up with a total of four coats. I sanded fairly aggressively after the first coat, then lightly after the second. The third and fourth I just put down as it was. Considering I didn't make any effort to get the bottom smooth in the first place, it looks really good. I think the sides and deck should come out very nice, although I think I might try a boar's bristle brush instead of the sponge brush for the tipping.
Back to the de-jigging. First thing I did was to grab one of my daughters to help, and then mark the width of the hull at three points. The plans say that it might tend to straighten out and/or "narrow up" once its of the form, so this way I have measurements that I can use to put in temporary spacers if necessary.
Next step was to crawl underneath and mark off some reference points on the keelson. I hit most of the marked points on the strongback, and also marked off the front and rear position of the centerboard box.
Last step was to cut all the Spanish Windlasses that were still holding the hull to the jig. Grabbed a couple of neighbors to help, and just like that, the hull is free:
Actually, it was a little harder than that. First, despite my efforts to mask off the jig, there were apparently some spots where the hull was glued down. It took a bit of tugging to break it free. And it turns out I missed one of the windlasses. Oops.
But a few fits and false starts aside, there it is.
Next step of the night was to tear down the jig. At one point, I had played around with the idea of selling it or maybe reusing it, but practicalities got the better of me. I really don't have a decent place where I could store it, and I'm going to need some framing lumber to build the new jig that will hold the boat while I finish out the interior, so out came the drill and out came the screws and I now have a big pile of scraps waiting for me to re-use:
I did save the strongback intact. I have plans for that later (stay tuned).
And I also took off the flare forms intact. Between the flare forms and the strongback, that's most of the work building the jig anyway. The rest is pretty simple. These are less bulky this way, so I may save them and see if I can give them away to another Pelican builder.
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