V-Day

A $100 worth of varnish peeling off.

Today was the dreaded V-Day, the day we've long put off to start varnishing the teak on Flying Cloud. When we bought the boat it had sat unattended for some period of time and the varnish was beginning to fail on the exterior cap rails (the top trim piece that goes around the top of the deck all around the boat) and companionway hatch boards. Ironically, Taswell sailboats are renowned for their incredible teak, especially their all-teak interiors. Taswell's have gorgeous light colored teak interiors that are the equal to those on luxury yachts. It seemed like we owed the boat some work to keep up its pedigree. 

Now that we were ready, the weather wasn't. For the last several days it's been blowing about 25 knots out of the east, which means that our companionway is essentially the opening to a wind tunnel. I like a little ventilation as well as the next guy, but this has been ridiculous. Boeing could test airplane models inside our boat. So V-Day had to be put off for several days.


Today's gentle breeze, however, meant we could wait no longer. We dug out all the varnishing paraphernalia from its storage location deep in the bowels of the boat: heat gun, scrapers, scraper sharpeners, sandpapers of various grits, sandpaper holders, varnish, turpentine, brushes, stir sticks, tack racks, foam brushes, and so on. Two plastic boxes full of just varnish stuff.

 We began by first taking photos of all the locks, hinges, latches, etc. that would have to be removed from the companionway doors. It seems we can never remember what goes where when the varnishing is completed. We then labeled everything so we'd have at least a sporting chance of getting it back together.

The next step is removing the 8 to 10 coats of varnish on the cap rails. To do this we use a Milwaukee heat gun, one of those tools craftsmen speak of with quiet reverence. It essentially puts out enough heat (1200 degrees) to melt some metals. You carefully aim the nozzle towards the varnish you want to remove and try (try is the key word here) to avoid the varnish you don't want to remove, or plastics or other flammables. If you are smart, you will have taped off all the important areas to be protected, but hey, we're professionals here and don't need no stinking masking tape. Then you slowly apply nuclear heat to the varnish until it begins to bubble (but not enough to burn the wood .... the time difference between these two states is measured in microseconds).

What are the odds that either the heat gun or scrapper will fall in the water?

Slowly you move your scraper along the softened varnish (Did I mention I'm leaning over the side of the boat which is rocking back and forth from the wakes of passing boats?) which hopefully peels up Goldilocks-type curls of old varnish. Of course if it doesn't you apply more brute force to the scraper, which then either slips and slices your wrist open, 2) gouges the fiberglass next to the wood, or 3) slices across the grain of the wood like some slasher from a horror movie. Normally these long curls of former varnish fall to the floor, unless of course the wind picks up in which case they all blow into the cabin where the wife is sitting and beginning to get pissed-off.

We also had to take of 88 ft. of stainless steel rub rail with 176 screws.

Once all the varnish is removed, you get to crank up your second favorite tool, the fabled Porter-Cable SpeedBloc sander, with enough RPMs to have a gyroscopic effect when it starts. This power sander is the sander all other sanders want to be when they grow up -- a beautifully engineered piece of machinery. With those 15,000 RPMs comes one downside, lots and lots of dust. Normally I like teak dust but the wife doesn't share my eclectic tastes. Now imagine a 10-knot breeze kicking up and blowing all this teak dust into the saloon where she's sitting working on her computer (and still pissed off from all the Goldilocks curls that blew in earlier). Well, we don't have to go there, but you get the idea (this eventually resolves into lots of dirty looks and a three-hour extended shopping trip for therapeutic purposes). With the boat now totally covered in dust it's now time to bring out Mr. Vacuum and try to suck up all the strata layers everywhere before wife gets back from shopping trip. Stay tuned tomorrow for tips on how to spill varnish all over the boat.