Milestone reached

[Konrad]

Tonight I reached a milestone in my quest to transition my Vacationer from "rode hard & put away wet" to "well-maintained" status.

Tonight I applied varnish to wood.

That's a bigger deal than it sounds.  Really.

I had multiple areas on each rubrail where wood had separated/delaminated, requiring epoxy filling, sanding, refilling, more sanding, etc.

Then, oh brother, staining the sanded wood..!?!

That was a MAJOR pain because for the life of me I cannot remember what brand or color of stain I originally used 9 years ago.

I spent days (and dollars) bringing home several half-pints of stain.

Anyway, I eventually got a pretty close match.

But not perfect, and I wasn't getting the results I wanted on some areas of the rubrails.

I finally resorted to meticulously applying stain with (honest) an artist's brush to blend it as best as I could.

Time consuming, but at least all the obvious repair spots are hidden. 

They're there, but you have to be looking for them.

So anyway, first coat of varnish tonight, applies to rub rails and the leading edge of the cockpit coaming (if it has a name I've forgotten it).

This weekend, I'm getting on top of the checked plywood areas.

ONWARD..!!! 

Here's a tip for those of you still under construction:  Make yourself some as-built lists as you go.  Things like paint manufacturer and colors, stain, varnish, maybe even some of your hardware or wood species selection.  Roll it up in a small plastic tube like what motorcyclists use for their registration, and hide it in your boat when you're done.  I sure could have used this reference.  I'm surprised at how much of this data has left my mind over the last 9 years.  (No comments, Bruce..)

[wkisting]

Good advice, Konrad. My wife and I also found on our last boat that keeping a meticulous log book of the materials (including part numbers, wood species, supplier names, original costs, etc.) can help you get better resale value (if you sell your boat) and makes for a very grateful buyer.

[Konrad]

Today I fiberglassed all of the checked areas except for one, and I also got ambitious and applied a third coat of varnish to the repaired wood.  That's pretty decent for a day's work.

Tomorrow I hit the one area that I didn't get glassed today, and I'll start sanding/fairing the other ones that got glass today.