The desired result of the sanding is to achieve a perfectly flat surface in preparation for polishing.
Rocker
Left Quarter
Started into the sail panel
Trunk
Most of one half
Here's where things get interesting... After sanding every square inch with 1000 grit, You have to follow up with ;
1200
1500
2000
2500
The first grit is the most time consuming because you have to remove the surface defects and the following grits only have to remove the previous grit scratch however....
You can understand where the hours start to pile up.
After 2500 I also quickly orbital wet sand with 3000, 5000 and 8000 to cut down on polishing time (arguably ? as most polishing time is spent removing stray coarse scratches which the orbital grits would not cut out)