I'm finally getting some paint on the boat. Primer right now, but it's starting to look good. I've been fighting myself on getting the boat perfect thinking that I've got to have it in bristol condition. After seeing my first 2 coats of primer go on, I've gotten over that. The first coat looked awful. I rolled and tipped it without thinning at all. After sanding and painting another coat of white primer with a little bit of thinner, it actually looked really good. I applied this with a roller and didn't tip it at all. If I were painting my boat white, I wouldn't hesitate doing the whole boat this way at all. There was a slight orange peel to the finish, but not noticeable more than 5 feet away, just looked like slightly aged gelcoat. This weekend I also applied my first coat of colored primer to half of the topsides. Half primer and half color (Brightsides Dark Blue). It came out to be the exact same color as blue masking tape. My wife came out and saw it and tried to be nice about how good it looked until I told her this wasn't the final color. She came clean and said that's good because she hated the color. Again, this was simply rolled on with no tipping and came out looking really good from 5 feet. A few runs here and there, but really, the finish is something I could live with. I do have to be a little more careful with the dark blue since it will be shinier and the dark color will transmit the flaws. I am really happy with how my repairs to the topsides have all but disappeared under the paint. I'll try to snap some pictures tonight of the progress if the weather permits.
