Lackey Sailing | August West 7

March 19, 2020

August West 7

Thursday

Picking up where I left off, I continued sanding the taffrail and port toerail, working my way along the boat with 80 and 120 grits till I’d cleaned up and smoothed all the wood.

With the work on the toerails complete, the only woodwork remaining was the companionway swashboards, which were coated with some awful dark brown product (vestiges of which I’d seen on some of the other woodwork, so the boat must have had this terrible coating all over at one point (shudder). I stripped the old finish from all sides of the boards, then sanded them as clean and smooth as possible through 120 grit; the outer surfaces were quite heavily weathered and the wood would never be totally smooth, but it was OK to leave natural; had these been slated for new varnish, I might have suggested simply replacing them with new, but that was neither here nor there.

Moving on, I continued work on the sea hood. After sanding the primer from last time, and cleaning the surfaces, I masked off the field area on top of the hood for eventual nonskid, then applied the first of two or three coats of white paint to the sides and edges.

Back on deck, I prepared for the final installation of the sliding companionway hatch and guide rails, eventually installing them permanently with butyl sealant and screws, then filling the screw holes with new bungs.

Finally, I mocked up the new winches once more, this time paying attention to the base size and configuration and ensuring that the bolt pattern would work on the bronze winch stands. The winch base was nearly the perfect size to just fit on the stands, and I thought I could get the bolts properly secured while leaving just enough room (perhaps with a slight coaming modification) for the winch drum to turn freely when installed. Otherwise, the new winches looked good in place. I took photos from various angles to showcase the appearance so we could decide whether to proceed with the installation or not.