April 8th, 2020
For a long time now, yacht painting is something we have subcontracted out with mixed results and it’s an area that we have wanted to bring in-house. I am delighted to announce that Gerard Llodrá Barcelóhas recently joined us from one of Palma’s leading coating specialist. Gerard has already hit the ground running and has not only painted two spars for us but countless amounts of parts as well and his quality is exceptional.
For Berthon to offer this yacht painting service was important, not just because it allows us to keep a tight control over the quality, but we were also struggling to ensure timescales were adhered too. With any yacht refit company, painting is always going to play a big part. Even when we are working on mechanical items, parts will often need to be repainted. There is nothing worse for us than delivering an item back to a yacht that has been stripped and rebuilt but still has the old paintwork.
As a coating specialist, Gerard is not only a dab hand with his paint set but is also a wizard with gel coat and varnish. We are just in the final days of another mini refit on a Gunfleet 58 and he has been painting hatch frames, making gel repairs and re-varnishing the lacquer on a carbon gangway. We are working with the whole range of paints brands; Awlgrip, International, Epifanes to name a few.
Contamination is a word we are hearing a lot right now and in the yacht painting world it’s also a word you can soon tire of! If anything gets near the paint that shouldn’t during the application process, you are looking at doing the whole thing again; costly in both time and money. Advance planning is essential. All surfaces need to be well prepped and the work area must be as dust free as a surgery.
The post paintwork treatment is also incredibly important to get right. For a captain, driving a freshly painted yacht out of shipyard is comparable only to driving your new-born child home for the first time. Similarly, installing freshly painted spars is a nerve-racking process and it’s important that this is all well thought through and executed with kid gloves on.
I am delighted that we are now able to offer gel coat repairs, paintwork and varnishing at Berthon Spain and we are looking forward to adding to this department some more soon.
Please get in touch with us for any of your yacht painting needs and we will be happy to help.
Managing Director – andrew.fairbrass@berthonspain.com
Tel: +34 971 415 441
https://www.berthonspain.com/
