FROONIE: Final Topsides Coat

Sunday, April 17th, I applied the final coat of Froonie's topside paint - a custom blend of Interlux Brightsides one-part polyurethane topside finish. After several swatches and various ratios of Brightsides Blu-Glow White and Fire Red, I arrived at a 32:1 ratio (Blu-Glow White : Fire Red). The pink is a tasteful pink, and was finally decided upon after I asked the following of my daughter numerous times: "Skylar, pink? Are you sure?" Well, it is her sailboat after all, and I was happy to oblige.

The topsides were sanded the day before, and in preparation of painting. For the final coat of topsides paint, I repeated the process of sanding, cleaning and prepping, and painting the hull as I had done through the previous three coats: sand with 220 grit, solvent wash the hull, mix paint, apply. Originally, I was working towards using the Interlux Perfection topsides finish (a two-part polyurethane paint); however, for reasons of expense and inexperience rolling and tipping $75 / quart paint, I decided to use the Interlux Brightsides topsides finish. I had used Brightsides on the interior and achieved fine results, so I was very comfortable moving forward with the same product for the exterior - which it is designed for. I'll save the Perfection for the Westsail.

Sanding and prepping the hull on the 16th was a formidable task. The job was not made difficult due to Florida heat and humidity, or pesky biting insects...the challenge was in trying to avoid being whipped by the loosely draped tarp! The winds on Saturday must have been a sustained 15 to 20mph, and gusting to 25 or 30mph!! It was nice to have a constant flow of air over the work surface while sanding, and over my body to keep the heat down; however, I was beginning to have doubts that paint would be even remotely possible given these conditions. Despite the high winds, I pushed through to at least get the sanding work done.

To my surprise and "dee-liiigghhht", Sunday morning was calm and peaceful, without a cloud in the sky! Paint would be applied! So, I arrived at Froonie feeling very satisfied with the vanilla cream donut recently ingested and coffee coursing. I solvent washed the hull as well as the first few inches of the deck, and then mixed the day's paint requirements. Using the proper ratio of my Brightsides formulation, I mixed to achieve Froonie's pink and then thinned with Interlux 333.

The following pictures are the results of the fourth and final coat of Froonie's custom Interlux Brightsides pink: Bow...