Lackey Sailing | tim lackey

Monday

Fifth coat! What more is there to say?

I know not what, so have a good day!

Total time billed on this job today: 1 hour

0600 Weather Observation: 60°, fog. Forecast for the day: Clearing, sunny, 76°

Saturday

Following the usual procedures, I completed the fourth coat of varnish.

Total time billed on this job today: 1 hour

0600 Weather Observation: 60°, clouds, fog, drizzle. Forecast for the day: Slow clearing, 76°

Friday

Continuing the process with the brightwork, after a light sanding and cleanup, I applied the third coat of varnish to all areas.

Total time billed on this job today: 1 hour

0600 Weather Observation: Cloudy, 60°. Forecast for the day: Mostly cloudy, 73°

Thursday

After lightly sanding the first coat of varnish and cleaning up as needed, I applied the second coat of gloss varnish to all areas.

Total time billed on this job today: 1.25 hours

0600 Weather Observation: Fog, 60°. Forecast for the day: Clouds and fog giving way to sun, 84°

Wednesday

To begin the day’s work, I sanded the hull to prepare it for new primer and eventually paint (though the finish paint was outside of my project scope). After briefly experimenting to determine how much sanding the hull would require, I eventually went over the whole hull with a finish sander and 80-120 grit paper, removing all of the blue paint and getting down to the sound substrate beneath. The green paint below had been well-applied, with primer beneath, and since it was sound I did not bother trying to remove all the old primer and paint, as what remained would make a good substrate for new primer.

Next, I turned the boat upright again, and sanded all the woodwork as needed to prepare it for varnish.

After vacuuming and solvent-wash, I masked off the hull and hardware as needed all around the boat, inside and out. Since I’d not been able to remove the ring fitting on the inside of the transom, I used small stuff running from an old hardware hole in the stem (these holes and others to be later filled before hull priming) to secure the ring tightly to keep it out of the way during the upcoming varnish work.

Later, after final preparations, I applied the first of at least six coats of gloss varnish to all the wooden parts.

Total time billed on this job today: 4.75 hours

0600 Weather Observation: Fog and drizzle, 60°. Forecast for the day: Clouds, fog, and intermittent showers with sun, 80°

Tuesday

The owner of this classic Dyer Midget (8′) dinghy asked me to strip and refinish the interior woodwork (seats and rails), as well as to prepare and prime the hull for him for later painting.

The boat as delivered featured the original translucent/bare fiberglass interior, woodwork in generally good condition with partial and thin coats of finish in place, and a hull that had been painted at least twice, with the most recent paint being a bold blue in marginal condition.

The boat was wet from the rain outside, so my first task was to dry things off, after which I removed the after two oarlocks, which a previous owner had bolted in place through the inner and outer rails (and hull), but this left dangerously protruding nuts on the exterior. The original oarlocks (including, still, the forward set) had been secured with screws, and the owner asked that I do the same with the after set.

Hoping to remove some of the other hardware before stripping and varnishing the wood, I tried several of the screws, but the old bronze screws were crumbling, and it was clear that there’d be no clean removal of the remaining hardware, so I left things be and planned to work around the hardware instead. I did remove the vertical plywood support from beneath the center thwart, as this would make it much easier to clean up and refinish this part separately. I did have to carefully drill out the screw heads in order to remove this piece, but it seemed worthwhile to make working on the semi-hidden piece more straightforward.

Now the boat was dry enough so I could get to work with heat gun and scraper, and during the afternoon I removed all the existing coating from the rails and seats. The wood beneath was in good condition, with a few dark stains characteristic of old mahogany.

I flipped the boat over and finished up the day’s work by removing the paint and other finish from the undersides of the outer rails.

Total time billed on this job today: 3.5 hours

0600 Weather Observation: Fog and drizzle, 60°. Forecast for the day: Clouds, fog, and showers, 80°

Friday

After inspecting the fresh paint and varnish, I deemed the work on both complete, and removed the masking tape to complete the main portion of the work.

The owner asked if I could paint the bottom, so I moved the boat into the other bay, planning at first to use my crane to lift the bow (with the stern supported by stands) and pull out the trailer, but this brought up some difficulties, and eventually I opted for the much simpler plan of raising the trailer tongue high enough to slip a V-stand beneath the center of the bow, which then allowed me to raise the boat enough off the bunks so I could mask and paint the bottom in those otherwise-inaccessible areas. Once I lowered the boat back onto the trailer, I finished up the area in way of the stands, and near the transom where access was easy with the boat on the trailer.

Back to Rocket

Total time billed on this job today: 1.5 hours

0600 Weather Observation: 50°, mostly cloudy. Forecast for the day: Partly sunny, 76°, scattered thundershowers in the afternoon

Wednesday

With the first full coat of maintenance varnish in place on the coamings, and the first coat of new paint on the rubrails, my first task was to lightly sand all surfaces to prepare them for the next coats, cleaning up thoroughly afterwards.

With preparation complete, I applied a second coat of varnish to all areas of the coaming.

Next, I applied a second coat of paint to the rubrail.

Total time billed on this job today: 1.5 hours

0600 Weather Observation: 50°, cloudy. Forecast for the day: Mainly cloudy, some sun, 69°

Tuesday

I began the day with a light sanding of the coamings, and then the primed rubrails. After the usual rounds of cleanup, I applied a full coat of maintenance varnish to all areas of the coaming.

Later in the day, I received the paint I’d ordered for the rubrail. Anticipating the delivery, I was ready to go once it arrived, and in short order applied the first of at least a couple coats of the new paint. I chose a a traditional, yet fun, color called “tint green” in a semi-gloss finish, which I thought would be a nice accent for this boat (and was).

Total time billed on this job today: 1 hour

0600 Weather Observation: 31°, clear with fog. Forecast for the day: Sunny, 66°

Monday

Continuing work on the rough varnish buildup on the areas of the coamings where it was required, I lightly sanded the three coats’ worth of buildup from last time, then, after cleaning, applied a fourth coat to these areas. This would be the final patching base coat before I started applying full maintenance coats over the entire coaming.

At my loose suggestion, the owner agreed that painting the old oak rubrail–which was weathered all over and black in some areas, though still in good structural condition–would be a good idea, and would improve the appearance of the wood. Although replacing the wood was a possibility, with pre-made oak rails readily available from Beetle company, the owner didn’t really want the headache of brightwork maintenance, and liked the idea of paint. We discussed possible colors, but ultimately he left the choice to me.

I already had the color in mind, but first I had to do some prepwork. After masking off the rail above and below on all parts of the boat, and other masking as necessary, I began with a coat of white primer over the old oak. Even the boring primer was a fair improvement over the weathered wood.