Spring Prep

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It has been a cold wet spring here and it is taking me a bit of time to get good weather windows for varnishing.  This year, with the boat next to my garage, I'm taking full advantage of the electricity and detail sander in my preparation phase. I've taken it back several layers and cleaned up some of the imperfections in the teak that have been gathering over time. 

Scuff Scuff

Tiller too.

Then the day comes when I could varnish. The trick is getting enough days in a row. The Epifanes takes 24 hours to dry before you can recoat. After 72 hours you have to scuff everything again so timing the weather is tricky. Last week the weatherman gave me a favorable window and it held. 


These were the easy ones to do in the garage. 

All set for the season. 


I also changed out the internal halyards and the sheet lines this spring.


I brought out my darning needles and spliced away.  The 3rd Splice came out the best. Clearly not perfect but I'm getting better. A few dozen more, and I'll be an expert. I also found  a nice brass snap shackle for the jib halyard in my toolbox.  I polished it up and think it will look nicer than my old stainless shackle.


Plan A: was to sew the new halyard to the old and pull it through the mast. It worked for the jib. It didn't work for the main. It jammed in the masthead and my stitching broke. I pulled it back out which was probably the first big mistake so I had to find a way to get the line back through the mast. 


Plan B: I pulled the mast head off and ran a wire through the mast. Then pulled the new line through top down.

Then I fed the new 7/16 inch line through the masthead neat and clean.

Once the masthead was reattached I installed the new windex.  



I spent some time fixing up the turnbuckles and cleaning up the standing rigging. Nothing left to do but launch now. 





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