Gel-coat problem - Ski refurbishment

What type of paint did you get/use ? If you were spraying primer you could use even slightly coarser paper , but now you must stay very fine like 400 wet IMO I hope there is never a crack in the seam for you to deal with.

Here's what I use. not much choice here. In fact there's no other brand available... On the label they say to sand with 280-360 between coats.

I'm just wondering how much weight in paint you are using?
I'd of been looking for a one coat fix to keep the weight down.

This red doesn't cover a lot. It needs 2-3 coats to get a consistent color all over the hull.
I thinned the primer around 15%, same for the paint. I have 2 light coats of primer, and I'll have 3 light coats of paint.
Haven't weighted the hull before I started priming and painting, but remember I sanded all the gel-coat away... so what I added might even be lighter than what I took away.

If I had access to a spraying equipment, I would have gone with car paint as I suspect it might be more durable. Having it done by a professional would not be that expensive since the hard work (that takes a lot of precious time) is sanding and filling and you can do it by yourself and deliver to the painter a hull thats ready to be sprayed.

Is that a single part PU paint?

Red /yellow/orange are often quite Translucent and need thick Gelcoats to be opaque. probably exactly as you notice with coats of paint.

Be careful with Red as it gets very hot in the sun(that is the reason there are so many white skis) What resin was used in your XT? Epoxy is only heat tolerant if it has been post cured (cooked)after fabrication .otherwise VE and Polyester are probably better choices.

Yes, single PU paint. Only other thing avalaible on my island is car paint.
As for the heat, the gel-coat was so dark blue before I sanded it , it was almost black... Red will get hot, but not as much as that blue.
Anyway my skis are exposed to the sun only when paddling. The rest of the time, they are in covers, under the shade of my carport, as you can see in the back of some of my pics.

Here is why I chose bright colors for my boats when I can (red, orange, pink, yellow).

In the debrief after the exercise, the chopper crew emphasized just how hard it is to see a ski on the water - especially all-white skis which blend in with the breaking waves. From the water we could see the chopper ages before they spotted us. Here's the summary of what the chopper crews found:
The red ski was always spotted first - and could be seen from approx. 600m
The white skis became visible at a range of about 300m!
Clothing made little difference to the paddlers' visibility
The best search altitude was 700-900ft

Taken from this article :
www.surfski.info/getting-started/tips-ot...rescue-exercise.html

Always thought the footstraps were too lose. I took the time to shorten them.

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Glued a bungie loop (from Huki). Now the deck is cleaner : no more bungies running over the hatch.

Back in the water : took it for an hour paddle, good surfing conditions, hull (interior) was dry at the end of the paddle.

Here it is, in the water.

Just bought an Olympus µ Tough 3000. Supposed to be waterproof up to 10 feet. That should be okay for filming on a canoe. Only problem is that vids format is MP4, and that Windows movie Maker does not read them, so I can't edit. Do you know a freeware that would do the trick ?

Havent a clue about the products you are all talking about, but enjoying the photos. Great back yard !!

Nice looking paint job! Like the red, too! Does it get hot in the sun? How is the seam holding up? Any defects showing up again?

Seam is OK. Doesn't get hot. It was a very dark blue before (almost black), so heat from the sun isn't a problem like it once was. I need to make some touch-up where the paddle blade hit the side of the cockpit. I'm planning to protect this area with the sameadhesive protective tape that is used on SUP's rails.

try a google search for Freemake video converter

Just wondering- I just caught this thread. How is your paint holding up, 2 years later?

A few scratches, but that's 100% my fault : I use this ski to surf at a reefbreak, and sometimes... well i have to jump from the ski for having being too optimistic about the waves I can handle... and the ski went over the reef a few times. I had a fex repairs to do. In fact I was amazed at how smalls were the impact scratches, holes and dings compared to the size of the waves... Fenn builds strong skis.