Lyman 23

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Yellow-B-Gone (April 28, 2004)
After some weeks with the boat sitting on her trailer in the back yard, I decided I couldn't stand the yellow paint. Not only did I find the color inappropriate, but the paint was peeling, faded, and dirty.

[Click here to view more pictures of the boat's original condition.]

I had planned to live with the paint as is for the first season, since we weren't going to keep the boat in the water full-time, and would only use her on a limited basis while she awaited restoration. But I have certain standards, and I just couldn't see taking to sea with the boat looking as disreputable as she did.

I decided to give the boat a very fast paint job to improve her appearance--and also to sort of "trial run" the proposed new color scheme.

I began by sanding the entire hull with 80 grit sand paper to rough up the old paint surface and remove any severely loose paint. I spent little time on this step, since the new paint job is temporary at best.

After cleaning off the sanding dust, I applied two coats of Petit Old Salem white semi-gloss enamel, a basic, traditional, inexpensive paint. I painted the entire hull from gunwale to boottop, striving for the best job under the circumstances, but not worrying too much about it either. It's temporary!

he white paint made a dramatic--and pleasing--change to the appearance of the boat. It was great to cover the unattractive yellow. I gave the new hull paint a couple days to dry before proceeding with the contrasting sheer and boottop paint.

I chose Petit Shipendec Pine Green paint for the sheer strake and boottop. Eventually, we'll apply Copper Bronze paint to the bottom, but for now I left the bottom untouched.

I thought that the boottop as painted had been a bit too wide, so I struck a new line a bit narrower and, with some adjusting by eye, got it straight and pleasing to the eye. I also continued the boottop across the transom, where none had been before.

I applied two coats of the pine green paint to the sheer strake and boottop. The accent stripes really finished off the new look and provided some insight into how the boat might look when completely restored.

As nice as the new paint looks, I still can't wait to remove it in the fall when I get down to real business in the boat's restoration!