Keels painted. Just needs a few days to cure. Then we got to rally the troops for the flip!

Took a break between coats of paint to to work on a few side projects for the Huckleberry...

The first is a water cannon. Its constructed of PVC and coated with spray-on truck bed liner (the cheap type from Home Depot in a spray can). It will be powered by a raw water washdown pump using a thru-hull under the seat. I am still working out details of the mechanism for aiming the cannon, but it will likely utilize a tiller handle under the front deck.

The other addition is a trumpet style horn, which will be mounted on top of the pilot house. I am hoping to build a mechanism that allows it to be triggered via a pull cord handing from the cabin top. I really wanted the double horn, but felt 150dB was a little excessive. This one only puts out 115dB which should be more than enough to alert the neighbors!

One more coat and hopefully ready for flip next week!

Paint too thick. Weather too humid. Guess we'll try again.

This little elf got impatient and stayed up late!

Laid down the final coat of surface primer last week. Sanded the whole boat with 220 grit today. That was a lot of dust.

Brushes came in today - Corona Heritage. Tomorrow the first topcoat goes on. Still undecided if I am just going to paint the bottom and save the sides for after the hull is flipped, or just go ahead and do the whole thing.

One step forward, two steps... sideways? Nothing like painting on a can of primer, then sanding most of it off. Filled a few low spots with fairing compound. Will sand them today, then apply a few final coats of primer.