Meet the team: Nesat Bas — Head of Yacht Painting Department

The main person who can guarantee that yout yacht will be painted according to the high standards.

How long have you been with Bering?

I have been with Bering since March 2018. However, I have known about the company long before that.

What previous experience do you have?

I have been involved in yachting industry in painting already more than 20 years. Previous shipyards were SUNRISE Yachts, AHB Yachts and ADA Yachts where I worked with different projects with yacht range from 20 to 87 meters.

How many people do you have in your team?

When we work over the project, there are about 18 highly experienced team members in painting group. Our part of work starts when all welding is done.

Could you please tell about your part of work with yacht from the moment when you start and to the end?

Our task is to make the steel hull ideally smooth. In total from the very beginning and till the final painting there can be from 19 to 27 covers of different materials.

Tell us about the main steps of the process of painting the boat.

First of all we need to prepare the hull and provide the maximum adhesion of the hull and the first cover of paint. We use method of sand blasting for this. After this during the period of 4-6 hours the first two covers should be put. The next step is to putty the hull to correct all roughness and put the interim cover of primer. And the result of our work is to put the several covers of final paint.

Could you please give us more details of the process.

First of all we clean the surface from dust, oil and water. Next step should include cold abrasive treatment of steel surface with sandblast. This allows to get rid of all possible corrosion and get the surface ready for further actions.
Then the surface is covered with the protection cover of primer 150-200 micron thickness.
The special attention should be paid to the application of primer below the waterline. Thus we should apply several coats of primer to get the maximum protection from external influence.
After all the surface is covered with primer we start the process of surface leveling. This is the most time consuming and accurate process to get the ideal surface for further painting. The thickness of covering can be from 3 to 12 mm.

What are the main details of fairing?

The composition that should be put on hull contains epoxy components, it gets dry and then grinded with sandpaper. Depending on the result, this step could be repeated from 5 to 10 times. This process allows to make a cover that is strong enough to protect the vessel and rather flexible in the same time to prevent the hull from cracking while the vessel is in motion.

And what about painting itself?

There are several covers of primer before the final painting. The conditions for the final painting are rather tough. The airspace around the boat should be brought to the sterile state of the operating room. The surface of the boat should be treated with special degreasing wipes.

The sterile conditions are very important and you even can`t use perfume and should wear a special clothes when you are at this step of the process. We perform all necessary tests to be sure that everything is ready to start the process of painting. This can allow us to be sure in the quality of the performed work. The painting should be put in 3 covers and 6-8 covers for the painting metallic effect. The most difficult part is to put all three covers immediately not allowing each cover to dry. You can`t stop the painting at any place of the hull, all surface should be covered in one time. The special temperature and air humidity conditions should be maintained through the whole period of paint drying which lasts from 12 to 24 hours.

What special conditions can provide the long life of painted hull?

It is very important to wash the yacht with special cleaning products and this will let the painting cover stay in a good condition for a long years. Our technology of painting allows to recover the painting cover at least three times.

What projects are you working with at the present time?

Recently we have finished fairing of the hull and superstructure of Bering 77 model. And now we get prepare to start the work with the Bering flagship – Bering 106.