Its not a piano

My brother tells a story of a Tidewater boat builder  in Virginia who's disclaimer for less-than-perfect finish work was It's a boat, not a piano.  Of course, he built beautiful boats largely without defects, and mostly by eye.  That ain't me.

I've been struggling mightily to get a coat of Brightsides on that I wouldn't be ashamed to acknowledge as my work.  Two undercoats and 6 finish coats later, I'm not there.  I don't recall having anything like this difficulty getting the topsides of the canoe looking good.  Or even Ripple, which is far from perfect, and was done in the sun, where keeping a wet edge was a race against time, juggling holidays and sags.

I tried foam rollers, which don't seem to carry enough paint to avoid holidays, I tried mini nap rollers, which covered much better, but but left so much lint behind that i had to sand off nearly the whole coat.  My latest attempt is simply brushing.  Still wet, it looks better than any of the roll-and-tip methods.  We'll see how it looks dry.

Randy (above) helped me find a plausible waterline, which I will paint with bottom paint (the dinghy will probably  be in the water a lot).  That at least reduces the surface area for Brightsides application.