Painting deck: Where to Start, Where to Finish

[gchabs]

My wife and I have just spent the last two weeks removing just about everything from the deck of our 41' Morgan Out Islander in preparation for painting the deck. We have all the primer, paint and supplies and have just washed her and used a fiberglass prep to clean every nook and cranny that will get covered. We will be using Interlux Perfection using the "roll and tip method." The question we have been debating is where to start painting? Does one do the cockpit first, (our Morgan is a center cockpit model) then out into the deck, then finish at a location which allows you to just climb off the boat and go away for a while to let the paint dry? Or should you do the deck first, wait a day, then do the cockpit? Or a combination or variation of the above. Being 41 feet long, and 13 feet at its beamiest, its a bit imposing to think about painting it all at one time, but, we really don't have a clue whether it can or should be done in one fell swoop. One complicating factor is that Perfection needs to be mixed then left for 20 minutes to let the bubles work themselves out of the mix, and for the chemical process to start. Any thoughts on how to accomplish this task will be greatly appreciated. Thanks. George - Papagayo.

[Prerequisite]

Not sure about what order will work best for you, but I've had good luck using 3 people to paint with Perfection: 1 rolling, 1 tipping, and 1 mixing/running replacement rollers & brushes. The third person really is helpful because once you think you've got about 20 min of paint left in your bucket they can start a new mix for you having it ready when needed without slowing down the roll and tip progress. (We always did our best to only mix as much paint as we could throw down in about 25-30 minutes; that kept the paint from ever setting up too much before it was on the boat).