Varnishing round 2

This morning is about 73 deg/f and so I got another coat of varnish on.

laz hatch: 2
cabin trunk trim: 2
weatherboards 1,3: 1
weatherboard sill: 1

I'm still using heavily cut Epiphanes on these first coats.

Woohoo! Varnish!

Dear Diary,
Today I put on the first new varnish this boat has seen in at least 10 years. We're using Epifanes High Gloss Clear Finish. The first coat is cut with Penetrol and it did indeed brush on quite smoothly. We're using Epifanes since it came highly recommended, is compatible with teak (and other oily woods). It also claims to be recoatable within 72 hours without sanding. I am not sure if that is enough of a selling point in and of itself, as I have found a light sanding is almost always needed due to dust when varnishing outside. We'll see.

Here are pictures of the laz hatch (lazerette), and the weatherboards for the main hatch.

"A lazarette is usually a storage locker used for gear or equipment a sailor or bosun would use around the decks on a sailing vessel. It is typically found below the weather deck in the stern of the vessel and is accessed through a hatch if accessed from the main deck or a doorway if accessed from below decks. The equipment usually stored in a lazarette would be spare lines, sails, sail repair, line and cable splicing repair equipment, fenders, bosun chair, spare blocks, tools etc." -wikipedia 2010

Next up are the handrails and followed by the toe rails- at least as far as first coats go.

Sandy, sandy... scrapey, scrapey

We've been working on the brightwork, toe rails, hatches, weatherboards, etc. They are all the original teak and in pretty bad repair. We've scraped and sanded them all- using a heat gun to help get the varnish off. The heat gun works wonders on the varnish which was flaking in some spots and rather thick in others. The heat gun makes the varnish crackle and then it scrapes right off.

After sanding the teak down to bare wood to its natural golden honey color we applied Watco Teak Oil. After we apply a few coats of oil we wet sand with the teak oil and 500 grit sand paper to get the wood nice and smooth. Our plan is to let a few coats oil soak in we'll varnish it with several coats of Epifanes Clear Gloss and a couple more of Epifanes Wood Finish for added UV protection.