Paints have changed dramatically in the past couple of years. Epiphanes, using their rollers, flows out without tipping. Amazing results. You just have to make sure you get the thickness right while rolling. I watched a guy in St. Thomas a few weeks ago roll and tip Awlgrip. He uses an 8" wide brush with bristles about 2.5" long (an Italian made arts brush) with only vertical strokes. This was on a wooden boat and the finish is flawless.
Yeah, the "droplet" has never been there before and the water clearly has going through a tortured path to get to the bottom of the keel. It has the classic brownish look on the ground from having gone through resins, and a hint of resin stink. It didn't show up until I left some water in the bilge, which heretofore has been bone dry. I've glassed 3' holes in boats, so I'm not too concerned about a non-structural component. I'll vacuum the bilge, cut it off, let it dry some and glass it back up. I already have all the stuff. Thing is, I had ground off the bottom paint in the area where there was a tiny bit of delamination and discovered that both the forward end of the keel and the aft end of the keel had been worked, with white gelcoat applied on both. I suspect someone either hit it or tried to dry it. More recently, I'd attribute the delam to blocking it wrong, too far aft. I even wrote "hollow, do not block" in marker on the area I ground off. About the aft 16" or so of the keel. Probably a little less. The rest of the keel and bottom is dark blue gelcoat. Not a very good job was done, either, with gelcoat over old bottom paint and fiberglass cloth instead of roving, chop or biax used. Someone was also apparently enamoured with bondo, which shouldn't be used below the waterline (it absorbs water). It's all coming out. A day's work. Meaning she doesn't go south until May.
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