Espresso Martini House Boat

The Espresso Martini began with a last-minute callout on Facebook. A luxury boat builder found himself without a painter just before a major boat show — his scheduled painter had cancelled. That first urgent project, the French Martini, led to a lasting partnership and, six months to a year later, the Espresso Martini.

The scope of finishes on this boat was extraordinary. Nothing was done in ordinary house paint. The challenges were left-field — and relentless.

We started with MDF safeties, panels that needed serious protection in a marine environment. We sourced a Razinex X200 watertight membrane and applied it before spraying the panels in our workshop. The number of coats and the hours of sanding were incredible. Once perfected, the panels were delivered to the boat for installation.

Onboard, we masked the entire vessel and sprayed out feature panellings, trims, and architraves. The remaining surfaces were finished with an Italian-imported product called Sayerlack — a kitchen-grade coating far superior to standard house paint.

Because this was a boat, ordinary gap filler was out of the question. Every joint was sealed with Sikaflex, applied with painstaking precision. Once sealed, the doors were brought back to our workshop spray booths and finished with metallic auto-grade paint before reinstallation.

The final touches included Sikkens Marine clear coating on handrails and stair treads — protective, beautiful, and built to withstand life on the water.