Cratch front designs

Phew, despite frequent rain showers, I've repainted Herbie's cratch front over ten times today. All in a search to find a design Kath likes. If you don't believe me, take a look at some of them.

    

Alright, I admit it, I wasn't using paint on the cratch, I was using Paint on the computer. Useful though because my original design idea which looked good on paper, didn't look at all right on the boat. One thing I learned is that the designs look better if they don't extend through the full height of the “mullion” board.

Of course the Met Office (never the same since they left Bracknell where I could keep an eye on them) have supplied us with weather unsuitable for painting all this summer – either too hot or too windy or showery. So my solution is to make a new “veneer” board to pint at home and then screw over the somewhat weatherbeaten one on the boat.

For the designs, I have been using colours that are already in use on Herbie, the two greys from the cabin sides, the red from the cants and the white lining from the bow flashes. Also you will see that I was keen to reflect the red diamond on the bow flashes. Our final choice is this one:

The board is cut, primer-ed and undercoated twice and once that last coat is dry I'm ready to start on the real fun, the marking out and painting. That'll take several days because of the different colours and abutting edges and multiple coats of paint, although only probably twenty minutes at each session. I'd never have got it done out in the open.