Varnishing

Last weekend and this weekend I've mostly been doing stuff that I can do off the boat, as I've not been able to get on board much for one reason or another. I still nip down to Eastney a couple of times a week to check on Sprite 2.

Anyway, last week I varnished the cabin step which was looking a little worn and the plywood cover over the sink.

This week I'm working on the rudder as the varnish has worn off or cracked in places, especially under the pintle brackets. I'm not doing a major job like stripping back to wood, just epoxying some holes, sanding the old varnish to key it ready for the new coat. Even that took a few hours of glueing stripping sanding and varnishing. Its easy to underestimate how big a thing a rudder is!

Here it is after the first coat of yacht varnish:

I'll give it another coat of varnish tomorrow if the weather is fine and then I'll refit the pintles when I've got new stainless wood screws.

But that should be it ready for season's sailing.

My freebie generator needs a bit of work as it takes a bit to get it to start. With a bit of fettling it should be ready to help sand the handrails on the boat down. It'll be luxury to be able to use a sander on the boat!

One job for next month is the cockpit locker tops. The plywood is well past its prime so they'll need replacing. I'm not sure yet if I go with the cheaper option of plywood and varnish, or if I go the whole hog and encapsulate the plywood in epoxy.to make it last longer.