Varnish

Left: the Boom

The pictures here show the jobs I started in June last year when I was back in Wellington on holiday.I’m not sure how many coats there are on them, as I started getting fuzzy around the time I got to 9 coats: so I added a few more and called it done. They were left for 6 months then I gave each one another coat for good measure on my return to NZ. I now have by far the brightest spars in the marina. When I point out my boat from the shore to people, they invariably say, “Is it that one with the shiny boom?” Perhaps they’re being polite because the rest of her still looks a bit rough.



I started by scraping the drab brown paint they were covered in and sanded. I used International Goldspar (Original). Lots of people suggested additives, etc, to prime the timber but I figured it must already have something as the mast and spars were all clear finished when built. Anyway, I don’t know enough about these things to go my own way so following the manufacturer’s instructions made the most sense and I’m quite happy with the result. The ends are primed and painted with off white International polyurethane.



Left: Spinnaker Pole
There are a few bumps and stains in the timber, which some people like to try to swell and or bleach out of their old boats. I think they look better with their small age-induced imperfections: I don’t want a boat that looks fresh out of an Ikea catalogue – I want a patina!Having said that, I don’t want the shrouds and stays to gouge away at the spars, so I’ve laid some twine around them where they are likely to come into contact from time to time. I’ve yet to paint it in these photos. I just used some white paint I found in the shed.



Left: Spinnaker Pole and Jockey Pole.
I’ve now got to do the mast and that leaves me in a bit of a quandary: The mast doesn’t leak, so I want to leave it alone; but I’m a bit afraid of the condition of the fittings at the top of the mast which may let me down (literally – and very quickly) should I try to go up on a halyard. Anyway, I’ll think of
something later on. It may require a big ladder, low tide and a calm day near a dock on a day when I’m not at work. Might take some time...
Bottom: Tiller scraped down and hung ready to varnish.