Lackey Sailing | Skeedeen 2020 7

April 30, 2020

Skeedeen 2020 7

Thursday

After two coats of new varnish on the various trim that was already in good condition–coachroof handrails, forward hatch trim, anchor platform, and the helm and companionway trim–I deemed this year’s maintenance on those areas complete and removed masking tape to the extent possible.

I was ready to start applying full maintenance coats to the windshield after 4 or 5 initial patch coats on the isolated bare areas I’d scraped, but since the fresh varnish on the nearby trim was still young and on the delicate side, and there was no way to reach the windshield without leaning over, into, and even on the fresh trim, I reluctantly decided to wait another day before continuing with the windshield, which still required 2 or more maintenance coats over the whole thing.

Instead, I turned to the bottom and boottop. The boottop was in poor-ish condition with old and worn–though mostly sound–paint, and required a spruce-up for the season, although with plans to paint the entire hull (including the boottop) coming up for next winter’s round of maintenance work, no heroic measures were needed on the boottop. The media blasting of the old bottom paint had left a narrow strip just below the boottop that still required removal.

To begin, I scraped away the remnants of bottom paint, not worrying particularly if I scraped a bit of the boottop paint in the process. I removed the loose and thick layers of old bottom paint–probably a buildup since the boat’s construction in 1987–as far as the gray barrier coat, which was still sound. With plans to sand and paint the topsides during the 2020-2021 winter, I knew I’d be able to further sand and clean up this area then. Once I’d removed the bottom paint and cleaned up the messy spoils, I lightly sanded the boottop as needed to accept new paint–paint that just had to work for this season, so my level of preparation reflected the immediate future plans.

After cleaning up the boat and shop, I turned to the day’s coat of maintenance varnish. This time, I applied another coat to the after piece of engine box trim (which I’d stripped bare a few days earlier), a second coat on the back sides of the bi-fold companionway doors and overhead hatch, and a first coat of maintenance varnish on the remaining small parts: rod holders, binocular case, cockpit trim pieces, and access hatches.