Thursday, February 26, 2009

The Varnishing of Puffin - The First Two Years





I saw Puffin for the first time on Thanksgiving weekend in 2005. She was in a shed in Traverse City, Michigan and in fine shape. Puffin was designed by Fred Bingham for John Mills, a Charlevoix, Michigan builder of wooden racing dinghies. Puffin started out as a schooner, then became a ketch and when Mills finally bought the plans in 1983 she was a cutter. All three designs were on the same 30' fiberglass hull. Bingham is known for his lifetime work with yacht joinery and interestingly, his classic book, "Practical Yacht Joinery", was published the same year he finalized his plans for Puffin ("Typee" on the blueprints). The Mills Yard launched Puffin on Lake Charlevoix in 1990.

My first thought upon seeing Puffin, was, "wow. My second thought was, "who needs this"? ... I bought the boat.



Puffin arrived to Waukegan, Illinois in May, 2006 and I spent the summer sailing and getting up the nerve to single hand her 14,000 pounds on Lake Michigan. It was a great summer. However, in June of that first year her ash and mahogany tiller delaminated. I repaired the tiller with tape. The washboard joinery started to separate in July (the wood as you will see, was in good shape, but the dado joints opened). It was an easy fix with West Marine Penetrating Epoxy. By the end of the summer, small grey and yellow circles on the the wide cockpit coamings were growing into large grey and yellow circles. Clearly, Puffin was behind in her varnishing schedule. Most perplexing were the six cockpit hatches. In the photo below the cockpit is glistening. All hatches were painted white on epoxied fiberglass cloth and in the bright sunshine I could see small hairline cracks starting to creep across all of the hatches.



Part I. The cockpit







Summer, 2006 -
Everything looks great. This is Puffin's first summer in Waukegan


During that first summer the varnish began to ask for some attention.

.




November 25, 2005 - Traverse City, Michigan. This is the day I first saw puffin and the coamings look good. In hind site, I have now re-examinded the photographs on my computer and the yellow and grey circles already evident - just very small.










<-----end of the first season










All summer I watched the spots grow.



End of the 1st season ------->




It took a lot of nerve and much thought to start removing the varnish, wondering if i was destroying this beautiful boat. Once started though, I really got into it. Here I am at the coaming and taffrail and with the aide of a great $25 heat gun and a dull scraper (the experts recommend sharp). I easily peeled off the varnish and without burning or scratching the mahogany .











Done - after a lot of do-overs ----->












Starboard Lazarette before -------->













<---------After








<-----Lazarettes about halfway through rehab



The light color (bottom of left photo) is the topside of the starboard lazarette, sanded and waiting for the next coat. The top left is the underside of the port lazarette with about 4 coats of varnish waiting for the next sanding.

You can see from the brown color that this is mahogany plywood. Only the 2 lazarettes and the cockpit sole are plywood. All other hatches and trim are the good stuff, solid Honduran mahogany with almost three dimensional deep red and orange tones.

In the winter of 2006 / 07 I brought home the 6 hatches, the washboards, tiller, Puffin’s beautiful forward hatch and a few more pieces. I spent a few October evenings studying those cracks in the paint. I used a 10x magnifying glass and a 500 watt halogen shop lamp to see better, and finally, after a week of trepidation, got up the nerve to put a knife blade to the crack in the white paint. There was wood grain underneath. probably mahogany! Over the next two weeks I learned how to use a heatgun - easy - just go very slowly , don't work when you are tired and don't burn the wood.


What a mess, black goo and mold. This is the underside of the cockpit sole / engine covers
after removing the white paint, glass cloth, cleaning and drying. The wood was black as the paint peeled off, but within minutes, the wood dried out and the black disappeared. A few backing pieces are beyond repair, but to my great surprise, after clean-up just about every piece of wood is solid, soon to be glistening mahogany. The light colored pieces are white oak.






I made diagrams so that I would be able to put everything back together. The screws and pieces were put in labled plastic bags. It was November and there was no way that I would remember how to put everything back together next May.






I carefully scraped and washed each piece with mineral spirits and marked their locations and positions with a black marking pen (undersides only) which still shows through the varnish today (good thinking). The few pieces that had to be thrown out were easily replaced (with plantation grown U.S. teak - not the good orange stuff from Thailand) at my local lumber yard. The light pieces are white oak.




The job is done and this is where I decided to experiment with Dolphinite instead of caulking such as Boatlife. After all the difficulty that I had in removing some of the old caulking I thought I would try Dolphinite which the old time wooden boaters said is easy to apply, easy to remove and easy to cleanup.







I like working with the Dolphinite and after (5 years now!) it still looks very good. I would not expect it to hold up as long as the silicones and polyurethanes, but I know that I can easily remove these pieces. I also used Dolphinite on the forward hatch lexan port for the same reason.











My Garage work bench

One of my neighbors called me to ask if he could
borrow a screw driver. I asked him what type. He thought there was only one kind of screw driver. I told him i probably had at least 50. He thinks I am nuts. As you can see I have developed quite a collection of scrapers, electric sanders and clamps - lots of clamps.





Here, the cockpit sole has 5 coats of Schooner Varnish (Interlux). The cockpit sole covers and the lazarettes are mahogany plywood. I am sanding here to prepare for coat # 6. All hatches were taken down to bare wood and I started my sanding with 180 grit paper. On some pieces that had too many rough spots I used 120 (with care). On these plywood pieces I also used a mahogany stain which changed the brown to a slightly red glow. In all cases I thinned the first two coats with Interlux 333. Beginning with the 3rd coat I used 240 grit paper unless there were too many drips and too much debris in the varnish, in which case I would continue with 180. After the fifth coat I only used 240 and then 320 wet or dry.






These were the white painted cockpit locker hatches. This is gorgeous, solid mahogany on the left - I would guess the good stuff from Honduras. I do believe I could shave my beard in the reflection. Like everything else I applied 9 coats of Schooner varnish. The darker brown piece on the left and above on the cockpit sole are mahogany plywood.



The tiller is ash and mahogany. It delaminated during my first summer. With West Marine penetrating epoxy dripped into each lamination and clamping and then stripping off the varnish, good sanding and cleaning and 9 coats of Interlux Schooner Varnish - the tiller is now beautiful and solid.




































The cockpit as I first saw it November 2005































The Finished Cockpit, Spring 2007





The summer is for sailing and racing







Puffin is a cutter and she sails with a yankee and staysail - the only way to go. Her genoa is in my garage unused. Trimming, reefing, raising and dropping the sails are a breeze (pardon the pun). She balances beautifully, singlehands easily and there is no gut wrenching grinding and trimming like I have to deal with on the boats that I crew on at the Waukegan and Anchorage Yacht Club races every Wednesday and Thursday evening. The main is a partial batten with lazy jacks which easily capture the sail when dropped.

The halyards are not led back to the cockpit, an option I strongly considered when I had the deck awlgripped in 2008. Working at the mast is very stable and comfortable and even single handing in rough water, dropping the staysail (the yankee is furled) and reefing the main is not difficult.






The Moral of This Blog

Re - varnish your boat?

And

What if like me, you are a novice






It was clear that Puffin has always been well cared for and bringing her up to Bristol condition was a labor of love, but probably not a task to undertake if you have young children, pets, work overtime at the office and have a few other hobbies to keep you busy. You certainly need a workbench in your garage or basement and don’t be in a hurry. In my case I spent a good amount of time reading, experimenting, listening to and watching friends and strangers in the boat yard. In most cases I could separate the good advice from the bad. When I made mistakes I was almost always willing to start over. Where I didn’t start over I had the pleasure of staring at those mistakes all of the next summer. Invariably, I did fix those mistakes the next winter.

After some false starts I found that in most cases the varnish on all surfaces, had to be taken down to bare wood. I did not sand off the varnish, nor did I use solvents. Everything was done with a $25 heat gun from Ace Hardware. Once I got the touch, the heat gun turned out to be one of my most important tools. For the most part, the varnish came off the wood in clean easy strips; like peeling a cucumber. I accumulated a lot of scrapers; dull, sharp, stiff, pliable, metal and plastic. I found pull scrapers to be too sharp and rough. My favorite scraper was flexible, dull, steel. From what I have read you need a sharp, stiff scraper and I disagree. Sharp and stiff meant, in my case at least, gouging the wood. I should have started with the undersides of those hatches until I gained more experience (Karen Larson in her "Good Old Boat" editorial, "painting the inside of the closet first "), but in the beginning of this project, I had no intention of removing anything other than the exposed topsides for re-varnishing.

All sandpapers are not equal. The cheap stuff can clog in a few moments, but worse yet, it just doesn’t do the right job on the wood. 60 grit paper is definitely overkill and even 80 grit is mean and I rarely used it. In the few instances where there were gouges or deep grain saturated with old paint I usually found that 120 grit worked best. Once the hatches were bare and clean, but before starting to varnish I always used 180 grit to smooth out the wood. In the cases where the old varnish foundation was good and I did not have to strip to bare wood, I normally used 180 to smooth out the old varnish and take off enough of the old top coats so that I had a good base to start with. I have read articles about sanding bare wood with 240 or 320 before applying the first coat of varnish. I don’t think so. The first two coats of varnish, properly diluted, need the 180 to get into the grain of the wood.

After sanding and before putting on a new coat I vacuumed everything in and around my workbench. I found that sweeping the floor was a disaster which required a day for the dust to settle. Now I vacuum the floor too. A photo below shows my shop vac permanently hung near the workbench with a 12' exension hose hanging over the bench. This was one of my better discoveries. I then wiped down each piece with mineral spirits and clean paper towels - three times, letting the wood dry between wipes. Before you start varnishing, the wet wood gives a very close idea of how the wood will look after varnishing. If you see a flaw, fix it now, before you start with the varnish. One last final wipe with a tack cloth and you can start varnishing.

I could do the first 3 coats on three succeeding days. Beginning with number 4 I waited at least 2 days for the varnish to dry and as I approached # 7 I waited about 4 days. I did not varnish if the night time temperature dropped below 45 degrees.


Getting high on all the chemicals and burning the skin off your hands - Darth Vader



Early in my project I noticed that I would float out of my garage at the end of a sanding and varnishing session. I bought a face mask and eventually I tried quite a few until I finally purchased a Darth Vader type respirator. What a difference. My glasses no longer fogged up, the mask did not get wet, I could speak through the mask and I no longer felt like I was crawling on the ceiling of my garage. Interestingly, the respirator was not effective when I used acetone. In looking back I would say there is no use, at any time, for a solvent that strong. I once put a latex glove in my pocket after I finished wiping something with acetone. About 30 minutes later my thigh seemed to be on fire. The acetone dissolved the pocket in my levis and my thigh was burned. As with masks, macho men don’t use gloves either, but in year number two I started using gloves and my cactus hands have returned to normal. There are all kinds of gloves. That's another story. The exception with strong solvents was using Bix stripper for soaking some of my hardware. It was easy, effective and I did it in the kitchen sink.






Another indispensable tool was my shop vac. It was permanently mounted on my work bench and I added a 12' hose so that the nozzle was always floating over my work. I used it constantly during sanding, scraping and cleaning up.


I am amazed to see all of the tools that I amassed. I bought a lot of cheap screw drivers, scrapers, chisels and clamps. Most of them are now chipped and broken. I have some very inexpensive orbital sanders which are wonderful and some expensive tools that are not wonderful. Using a disc sander on your portable drill is not ok, nor is a belt sander - too drastic and not enough control. After hesitating for one year I purchased a FEIN Multimaster (move down 5 photos below). It is expensive and until I started using it, I was not sure that it was worth the price. It is a big boy Dremel; much larger and heavier with an amazing array of attachments. It has a good dust removal kit and when sanding epoxy, good dust removal is essential. My first year I sanded Pufin's rails by hand because no power tool that I had would fit. I used my fingers and finger nails to form the sand paper. I have 70 linear feet of sanding under the inboard cap rail and another 70' outboard. This year it was a cinch with the Multimaster and I did a better job of sanding.



Part II - Destroying a coaming box






The devil’s job is removing caulk and bedding. Removing bedding that is 10 to 20 years old is a quick, clean and simple. Newer caulk is very difficult to remove and clean up. I scoured the internet and various tech departments (3M, GE, Boatlife, etc.) for advise on how to remove silicone caulk and had not found anything that worked for me. In January, 2008 I tried a new product and in less then two minutes, a teak plywood portion of my coaming box disintegrated (photo on right). The good news was that the damaged area is hidden from view once the box is caulked back into the cockpit. The bad news is I still had to do a good, solid repair that would last longer than me. Thanks to Jerry Powlas at "Good Old Boat" it looks like a soft wire brush on my electric drill would have done the job. See my notes below on the forward hatch.

After cleaning, grinding, and drilling some holes to get a good soaking and penetration in the damaged wood, I applied two coats of West Marine Penetrating epoxy, followed by three coats of West System. I used 105 resin with 205 hardener and 405 for the filler. I have experimented with the various West System choices (45 degrees Fahrenheit and above) and the 405 filler seems to be the best choice for wood. It sands well, has a darker color and is easy to use. Some friends asked me why it was necessary to do such a good job on a decomposed area that no one could see. My thinking was I wanted it be solid and smooth and last for 20 years. I don’t want to pull that coaming box out of the bulkhead again.



<----- West System 3rd coat ready to sand




Sanding epoxy is toxic and once more my prized and expensive Fein Multimaster paid off. It has the best dust extractor that I have found. A small mistake was made on my part here. I started with 60 grit paper to take the epoxy down and removed too much wood. 80 grit is good for rough jobs and fast removal; 60 is over-kill.







The coaming box is back to Bristol condition. I will apply a few more coats of varnish. This coaming box, by the way, was purchased last year from Catalina and is made for the Catalina 30. It has been a nice addition to Puffin’s cockpit.










Fein Multimaster --------->

















Coaming box back in the cockpit ------>








Part III - My Stradivarius - The Forward Hatch






November 25, 2005



The day I bought Puffin. The forward hatch was a beautify, but a bit worn. I wondered if I could, or ever would, try to touch it up.








May, 2008 --------->



All done and she is bristol.







I thought I could just patch the corners which I started to do in the photos below. In this photo I had applied 3 coats of varnish as a test area, to the upper right corner of the hatch. I thought I would then lightly sand the entire hatch and put one last coat of varnish on everything blending the new and the old. It didn't work.





I kept removing more bad spots - below.


















and I started examining the joints with a 10x magnifying glass. The joints were filled with old varnish, debris and there were many voids, waiting for next season's rain. Also, the joints needed bleaching.

















That was that. (Below) after removing the the stainless steel plates and the lexan, I started to strip the entire hatch (using a heat gun of course).


Removing the stainless steel straps was easy, I just wasn't sure what was underneath and could I ever get this all back together. The straps came right off and there was 20 year old blue masking tape underneath. I discussed the masking tape with all the yard pros. Nobody was sure why it was there. Getting the lexan out was a major task. I could not break the caulk seal and I was worried that I would crack the lexan. My guess is that the caulking was only a few years old as most of Puffin's 15 year old caulking was very easy to remove. Once the lexan was out I started removing the old caulk. The calk looked like silicone and I could not remove it. I called the various marine chemical companies and even the Ace Hardware tech department. l bought a variety of remedies and in the end I picked the caulk out using my finger nails, screw driver, razor blade and tweezers. The entire job of removing the lexan and cleaning up the caulk took two weeks. Later, I learned from Jerry Powlas at "Good Old Boat" that a wire brush on my electric drill probably would have easily removed and cleaned the wood in short order and without scratching the wood. It appears to work.







The lexan is now exposed. You can see the old, blue masking tape and some caulk on the s.s. straps















I don't know what the purpose was of the blue masking tape; maybe the previous owner forgot to remove it. Maybe the masking tape was to keep the caulk from squeezing out onto the lexan.

Another view of what was underneath the s.s. straps.






The lexan port is now removed and you can see the caulk bedding.


I could not clean off that old caulk---->






I used a Dremel tool to clean the joints which were filled with years of varnish and junk. I don't think there was anything wrong with varnish in the joints, but the open voids and debris had to go, so everything needed to be cleaned out. Dripping West Marine penetrating epoxy into the open joints was not easy without dripping up the whole hatch. Lots of clamps and many layers and changing the angles of the clamps with each coat.






It was hard to drip the epoxy into the joints without dripping on everything else.













All done - 9 coats of varnish are applied and I am about to set the lexan in place (using Dolphinite)









All is not well



I had used Elmer's outdoor mahogany wood filler over the penetrating epoxy to fill the voids and then applied 9 coats of varnish. By the end of my first season some of the joints were a mess. Here it is the end of year # 2 and I am starting over, but this time filling with with West Marine penetrating epoxy (about 3 coats) and then West System (105, 205 and 405). Rabbit joints are easy to fill, but joints that "work" tend not to last more than one season. I was advised to use more resin and less hardner here and it seems to be lasting.









<------ After

Left and below are the West System filled seams and 9 new coats of Schooner varnish. No more Elmer's. After a full summer the joints look great!



















I have used West System 105 and 205 for many jobs on the boat. For wood to wood, as in the case of the forward hatch, I used # 405 filler which has a better color and seems to sand and varnish better. I used # 410 on the fiberglass hull for smooth fairing.











Wear a mask, don't use the filler in the wind, or at least be up wind. Use chemical gloves. Latex gloves won't do it - they will dissolve in a few moments. Don't pick your nose. I found that Nitrile gloves usually work (not for strong chemicals) and bought a box of 100 for a few dollars.








More Re-do's


I made a few good mistakes. I used all kinds of sandpaper, brushes, solvents, fillers, sealers, stains, epoxies, putties, bench tools, scrapers, caulks and advice from friend and foe. I started over quite a few times. I got advice from tech support desks (Interlux, 3M, GE, Dolfinite, Treewax and quite a few more). As often as not, the advice was not good.

Some notes about the varnishing:

Schooner Varnish was discontinued by Interluxe in mid-2009 and was replaced by Schooner Gold. I found gold very difficult to work with and had numerous conversations with their tech desk. In the end (spring 2010) I experimented with Le Tonkinois Veris Marine # 1. It is a 100 year old varnish recipe from Viet Nam and is manufactured by a French company. A few marine outlets in the U.S. sell it for $40 per litre (about one quart) including delivery. I also used Behr's classic oil exterior spar varnish from Home Depot which costs $15 per quart. Le Tonk (American Rope and Tar in Fairmont, California) says you only have to sand between every other coat and the varnish is not toxic and you can "touch up" something that I cannot do with other varnishes. That is quiet a claim and I will see over the next year. Both varnishes were very easy to use - I do not recall ever using a varnish with such ease. The results were great. This fall I will take a close look and report on how they survived the weather.

I also was totally amazed at a recommendation to use Scotch Bright Pads (very fine - red / purple in color # 4774 I believe) instead of sanding. Again, I will see how things turn out this fall. In the past it took me a full day to sand inboard, outboard and the top of my 70 plus feet of caprail. with the pad it took 15 minutes at the most, with no mess and the sanding was cleaner and smoother. there were no sanding marks, scratches and unevenly sanded surfaces! Amazing, but my old time wood friends don't believe me.


All wood trim was stripped bare using a heat gun (Ace Hardware $25). I chose not to use fillers (to fill the grain) and I think this turned out to be a good choice. I applied stain to the plywood hatches only - no stain on solid teak, mahogany, ash, oak and elm. I did not use stain or filler mostly because of Rebecca Wittman's advise (see below). In all cases the first two coats of varnish were thinned with Interlux 333 (about 15%). Cleaning, sanding, waiting between coats, and temperatures I explained above. All hardware was removed (hinges, hasps, etc.) and put back after the 5th coat so that I could blend or cut the remaining coats of varnish into the stainless steel hardware. Four more coats were added for a total of nine coats of Interlux Schooner Varnish. I experimented with different caulks which also is an on going learning process. It will take a few years to know, but at this time it seems that Dolfinite bedding compound is the hands down winner when it comes to wood on wood. Otherwise I used products such as Boatlife. I never used 3M 5200. Once I got to the 4th or 5th coat I waited up to 4 days between coats. I always sanded between coats except I did not sand after the first soaking coat diluted with Interlux 333. In the end I followed the advise of Rebecca Wittman, "Brightwork, The Art of Finishing Wood" and used only "Jen" foam brushes. I usually used wet or dry # 320 prior to my last coat. I lightly sprayed the wood with a water bottle before starting the sanding on the last few coats. The last few coast I sanded by hand. I have had difficulty dry sanding with 320 paper with an electric sander. Using the water bottle with 320 is an easy job.
Maybe I can do this with the 4774 Scotch Brite pads in the future and save a great deal of work and time.

I found that as I neared the bottom of the quart varnish can, the varnish turned dark and did not apply well. I always poured the varnish through a paper filter and wiped my work down with mineral spirits and soft paper towels 2 or 3 times letting the work dry between wipe downs. Finally, I used a tack rag just prior to varnishing.

Varnishing inside my winter storage building always meant surprises when I looked at my work later in bright sun light. I used a combination of halogen lamps, but it was still difficult to find the drips and the debris indoors. As I said before, somewhere else on this blog, if you are doing both sides of a hatch, do the last finish coat on the inside (presumably this is the side that nobody sees) and then do the last coat on the top side. There is always a drip or two coming over the edge, so ending on the top side you can get rid of those last drips. I mentioned before that I used "Jen" foam brushes. They are cheap, you use them once and throw that out (not good for the environment, but better than pouring all of that brush cleaner into your drain). Using the foam is less toxic to the brushee also and don't forget the respirator. A yard manager once told me that the yard could never get away with using a Jen foam brush on a Hinkley. They only use the best Chinese boar bristle brushes. These brushes are better when it comes to "cutting", but keeping them clean takes a lot of care and chemical.

I found patching only small areas to be almost impossible although there are some good posts on the wooden boat society website about doing just that. In my section above, on my forward hatch I have some photos showing how I did not have the inclination to refinish the entire hatch.

A few of my conclusions:


I was a lot smarter at the end of the project than at the beginning.
Take your time.
Try not to do a perfect job; it won’t be perfect even if you try and some battle scars on your bright work add to the character of the boat ( thanks for your advice Fred ).
Beware of all the chemicals.
Have fun.
Don’t believe half of what you read and hear.
Anyone who loves boats and has patience ought to be able to do these things.

If the night time temperature drops below 45 degrees take a day off.

I finally received a bit of advice from a blogger on bleaching bare wood. I boiled up a pot of water, making a thick paste of oxalic acid crystals and let the brew soak on the black areas all night. The black was gone the next morning. I think that plain old Clorax liquid bleach might work just as well?


Part IV - Canvas






<------This is the problem!!!



My poor fitting main cover has to go after about 14 years in the sun, but an off the shelf cover will cost about $300 and still won't fit quite right.






After ------->


June 3, 2009

Clutch, winch, handrail, foredeck staysail bag, tiller, control panel and companionway.






The solution: Buy a sewing machine ----->

I bought a basic Ebay sewing machine for about $300 and only overpaid slightly. I made sure that it could hold a # 20 needle and # 92 thread. I should have bought a heavier duty machine from Sailrite, but the price was more than double. What you see here is a wrestling match with a double piece of 9.5 oz Sunbrella 17' long extending from my dining room to my living room. This will be my new main sail cover.







Drawing and cutting the Sunbrella for the six hand rail covers.














Not finished - just taking a fitting.










Attaching the Sailrite "twist grommets. Sailrite sells some devices to make the work easier, but they are expensive. I used a razorblade to cut the cloth and pliers (taped so I wouldn't scratch the metal) to close the pieces and my soldering iron to clean up the holes.











Final template for the companionway. These are my triangles and t square circa 1958 from my engineering days in Urbana, Illinois.







Sewing Machines and Sailrite

I couldn't have done my canvas without Sailrite. Check out their website which has very clear step by step videos on how to sew a main cover and a foredeck bag. My Necchi Omega sewing machine cost me $300. The Sailrite machines run something like $600 and $1,100. I had a chance to look at the machines at the Sailrite booth at the All Sail show in Chicago this winter (2009) - their machines seem to be twice as good as mine and probably have a user's manual and support which mine does not have. My Necchi has one redeeming advantage. It can do a straight or zig zag triple stitch with the stitch width and length also adjustable. I am going to call Sailrite and ask them if their machines have the triple stitch which is very strong. My Necchi can barely penetrate 4 layers of 9.5 ounce Sunbrella canvas. It looked like the Sailrites can easily penetrate 8 or 9 layers. I bought all of my supplies from Sailrite including the twist grommets (Sailrite calls them common sense fastners), Dabond polyester thread, needles, seamstick (good stuff, although as I progressed I started using my desk stapler) and the Sunbrella cloth. Sailrite's prices were reasonable and their service is good.

I made sure that my machine could hold #20 needles and #92 thread. However, if I was sewing with more than one layer of canvas the machine tended to jam. #18 needles worked better and # 16 were the best. I think the problem was the thread and I settled on # 69. I tried to repair the batten pocket on my main sail and my Necchi just couldn't do it. My sails look like they are sewn with and repaired with # 92. I have been told that black thread is the best color to use because it resists the sun's radiation better than lighter colors. Using black or dark green on my green canvas made it very difficult to see what I was doing, where I was sewing and knoting the ends.


Winch cover template

I started my projects using cheap muslin cloth as a first pattern (muslin is cheap and Sunbrella is expensive) which turned out to be a big mistake. Here, I have switched to a stiff canvas to practice on.

The muslin stretches resulting in everything fitting on the winch or clutch or hatch when in fact the pattern didn't fit - it was stretching and I had to start over.










clutch covers - making up the template










companionway template


This is the muslin which stretches making everything appear to fit, even if it doesn't.








Part V - On Bleaching and Gluing






After four attempts to bleach out the large black areas on my washboards I finally boiled up some water and made a thick paste of oxalic crystals (acid) which I applied to the area and left it on overnight. The black is gone, but I have a water mark which I failed to notice until I started varnishing.





<-----The watermark left over from bleaching



If I ever strip the washboards again (don't think so), I will probably try soaking the entire washboard in household bleach - Clorax - overnight.






The left edge of my washboad, which looks like white oak, separated during the first season. I used West Marine penetrating epoxy to glue the joint. After 3 years it is perfectly solid.







Since day one I have opened and closed the cockpit instrument cover very carefully as it feels like it could come apart. Finally in 2009 I decided to rebuild the seams using West Marine penetrating epoxy. There are no handles or other hardware on the panel to open or close - you have to grab somewhere and pull.





I did not want to put hardware on the panel such as an s.s. handle as I felt it would take away from the appearance and somebody will eventually step on it and break the framing. This is a very nice piece of solid mahogany joinery. In the right photo I have added a teak batten.






I oiled the teak instead of varnishing and through bolted the batten so that it would be easy to remove the next time I need to varnish. Now, I can grab the two battens and nicely open the hatch and with the pull pressure distributed across the panels instead of stressing the joinery. (One year later I decided to put 9 coats of varnish on those battens and it looks much better).




The battens also gave me a way to pop on a home made Sunbrella cover, again, without having to use hooks or twist gromments (which somebody will surely kick or step on and break). I have a shock cord sewn into the hem and it snaps right on and off. No more sun bleaching out my engine instruments.









Winter Home - Larsen Marine, Waukegan

































Part VI - Stripping the white paint off the salon sole



The Salon Sole Was Painted White. I stared at it for two years and in the fall of 2008 took home the bilge hatch covers for a quick re-varnish. (the hatch covers were varnished, not painted). When I put them back - wow, the salon hatches looked great, but the white paint was saying, "strip me". And so I did. It was unusual paint. I have no idea what it was - not epoxy on glass cloth, and whatever it was, removing it was a hard job. I did not want to use a stripper and asphyxiate myself.




Before - hatches varnished, sole painted











Some progress with the heat gun on the starboard side, but no clean, bare wood here.






The final job: Bix gel stripper took off the remaining paint and I wore a respirator. Six coats of Schooner. I will put three more coats in during the summer of 2009.

I believe the sole is maple, but I was told by my lumberyard expert in residence that it is a rare variety of bleached mahogany(?).




Part VII - Cleaning up the bilge / battery compartment





November 25, 2005


The first time I saw Puffin - what a mess, but my experience always was, the bilge is supposed to be a dirty, disgusting place.








January, 2009 - dried, cleaned and sanded











One coat of Interlux Bilgecoat. I think one or two more coats will be required. If you look carefully down into the bilge it is still a mess (see below).









The Bilge, bilge





You are now looking into the bottom of my bilge, below the battery compartment. Epoxy had been laid down on the glass cloth (which sits on the keel) and is cracked and separating from the fiberglass floor.






After scraping, cleaning and sanding and then allowing one week to dry out (with the help of a fan and 60 watt light bulb - it was a very cold March and April) I applied a thick coat of West System with filler (410 I believe). The filler for the first coat is recommended in the West System manual. The bilge was vacuumed well and washed down with Acetone.


Three more coats of West System were laid down, this time without a filler and the coats were applied about two hours apart. No sanding or Acetone between coats. Then I gave the bilge about 3 days to dry.





Following the instructions from the West System manual and Interlux tech support (very helpful), I applied 3 coats of (grey) Interprotect 2000e, sanding and cleaning and washing down with Acetone between each coat. I allowed at least a day between each coat. I used grey instead of their new white so that I could see what was happening between the West System, Interprotect and the final coats of white Bilge Coat. Next year if there is any delamination or cracking I should be able to see which coat is not working.









Two coats of white Bilge Coat have been applied. The same sanding, vacuuming and Acetone cleanup were used between all coats.







All done. I have screwed the bilge pump filter into the floor of the bilge, caulking the screw holes. The debris that you see in the photo is just loose junk. After vacuuming the bilge looked great. What a shame to put Puffin in the water this summer.