Painting Interior

Looking Forward--Primer Coat

Finished painting the interior of the cuddy and the forward storage compartment.  Here you can see a forward-looking view of the interior after application of the oil-based primer.  I did not paint above the level of the cockpit-seat cleats so as not to interfere with the glue and fillets that will be applied to the topsides panels later.  In this shot you can also see an unpainted section just behind the centerboard trunk.  The front ends of the cockpit footwell floor and sides will be attached there, so that unpainted section will actually be part of the outside of the boat.  You can also see two items I used to great advantage, a combination mixing/pouring lid on the paint can and a roller tray with lid.

Here is a closer shot:

Roller Tray With Lid and Mix/Pour Paint-Can Lid

These two items saved me a lot of time and quite a bit of paint.  I was able to simply snap the lid on the roller tray with the roller in it and re-use it the next day or even after two or three days.  That saved a lot of clean-up time and loss of paint--you can't pour every bit of it back into the can.  The mixing/pouring lid has a crank handle that rotates mixing panels inside the can and a trigger that opens the pouring spout.  This is again a big time-saver and saves some paint.  The mixing paddles do an excellent job of mixing the paint.  I got the roller tray with cover at Lowe's and the lid from Rockler Woodworking.

Looking Aft--Primer Coat

 Here's another shot, looking toward the stern, of the primer coat .  I did not paint the stern compartment yet.  Once the cuddy is finished I plan to install some of the floorboards to give me a nice platform to work from while painting the stern compartment.

Final Finish Coat--Cuddy and Storage Compartment

 Here are some shots after the second finish coat and installation of some of the floorboards.  The remaining boards have not had their finish applied, so I'll be installing them later.  I used a high-quality interior/exterior latex paint for the finish coats over an oil-based primer.  The Skerry is painted with Hatteras White Interlux Topsides paint and I like the color very much so I'll be using it for the white parts on the outside of the PocketShip's hull.  I took a sample of the Hatteras White to the paint store and we found a color for the interior paint that is a very close match.

Looking Aft--Final Finish Coat

 As I said earlier, the floorboards will give me a good platform for painting the stern compartment.  There was also touching up to do under the rear cleats and here and there in the storage compartment, so the floorboards gave me a very comfortable platform to work from on those jobs.

Wider Looking Forward--Final Coat