Ceiling Backing Strips & Primer...Really!?

Friday, April 2nd, Good Friday, was observed at my place of employment...so, I took a portion of the day to accomplish some work on Froonie's ceiling. Not the ceiling you might imagine; the hull sides (interior) fixed with strips of ash, or other wood species, is referred to as the ceiling. I had first began this reconstruction a couple months ago with the port side of the v-berth. I had a time getting the backing strips, which will eventually enable the wood strips to be hung, to lay flat against the hull - I resorted to a lot of bracing to push the backing strips flush to the hull as the epoxy cured. It dawned on me a couple weeks after that I just need to remove material from the back side of the strips to allow them to take the contour of the hull. The picture below shows the cuts made in one of the backing strips; the cuts are not fully through the strip, but enough to allow it to be deformed by the curvature of the hull. Here is the starboard side of the v-berth's ceiling backing strips laid out, ready to be affixed to the hull. Since I decide to simply sand and reuse the original ceiling, I needed to properly lay out where the backing strips would be tabbed to the hull's interior. There are proper positions for the ceiling backing strips due to existing screw holes in the ceiling boards. To find the exact position of the backing strips, I placed the numbered ceiling boards onto the hull (one at a time), marking with a pencil on the hull the location of the screw holes. After the exercise with nearly all of the boards, I had a very firm position marked from berth to overheard of where the backing strips were to be placed. The process for affixing the backing strips was pretty simple: solvent wash the hull's surface, then mix West System epoxy with 407 microballoons and 406 collodial silica to a thickened consistency, apply to the back of the ceiling backing strips and place in their respective positions on the hull's surface. The duct tape served as further insurance in keeping the strips right where they needed to be as the epoxy cured. Next two photos show the v-berth and quarter berth on starboard side completed. The strips are a plastic / composite material. First application of primer! Here is a picture showing Interlux PreKote over recently prepared cabin surface. My reason for this relatively small portion being primed is that I am eager to install the mast reinforcement beams - which have been completed. Just forward of this portion, on Froonie's overhead, I have also primed. Next step will be to sand, apply a second coat of primer, sand again, followed by two coats of topcoat...then mast beams get bolted in!