pleasure-craft | Projects

This boat builder has been using ARR's to decorate walkways, galleys and decks for years.

This is a front view of this ocean going catamaran under construction.

Side view.

Rear view with wood stairs going up to the aft deck.

Stair ways leading from the galley on the main deck to the heads, shower and laundry and bunks on both sides of the ship.

Walk ways that lead to the heads and showers.

Close up shot of the floor condition before surface preparation.

Port side window on the deck in the galley.

Hatch covers are prepared for coating.

On the left side of the picture you see the black spots; they are bond tests curing.

A bond test is a mixture consisting of ARR primer resin and sand. The mixture is placed on the surface to be coated in a small 1-2 inch wide squares about 1/2-3/4" thick and allowed to cure.

Bond tests are performed on sample boards of coated materials that were discarded from the ship, to verify the influence correct surface preparation has on the ability of the ARR resin to bond to the polyester substrate.

After the bond test patties cure, a hammer and chisel is used to knock the patties off of the scrap boards cut from the floor of the ship.

Some of the patties were purposely placed over areas where no surface preparation was done to show the crew what happens if you don't prepare the surface correctly before applying the ARR resin.

This is a learning tool for the in house crew trained to apply the ARR resin.

After the patties were knocked off, the black patty on the top of the photo did not weld to the surface and did not pull out the existing surface. That patty was placed over the area where no surface preparation was performed.

The patty below with the white surface on it was placed over the correctly prepared surface and it pulled out the material.

This proves that the bond between the ARR primer and the existing properly prepared substrate is stronger than the material on the substrate and a lasting bond can be expected for the life of the ship.

Floor access panel hatch covers were properly prepared, primed, coated and flaked. Two coats of flake is prefered and looks much better than a single coat.

After the two flake coats cured, two ARR clear topcoats were applied and sanded lightly between coats.

After correct surface preparation, the perimeter of the pour up the wall was masked off using duct tape. This is port side.

Starboard side is masked and ready to prime.

To walk in wet resin, spiked shoes, somewhat similar to old golf spikes, were fashioned out of a board in the shape of a foot and long screws were drilled through the board with the points sticking out about 1/2".

Duct tape was used to secure the improvised spiked shoes to the craftsman's foot.

The floor was primed with the ARR primer.

Nine inch rollers and paint brushes were used to prime the floor.

Priming completed.

Flake is broadcast into the wet primer.

Shoe spikes are used to walk into the wet resin for broadcasting.

Priming continues on the opposite side of the ship.

First coat of flake is applied on the port side.

Flake broadcasting continues on the starboard side.

A second coat of flake is broadcast into the surface, followed by two clear topcoats of ARR.

The craftsmen were sufficiently trained to complete the rest of the project when the areas were ready to be coated.