The Spit & Polish

Out of the many, many projects that will be required to bring Firefly back to some semblance of her former glory, as a new boat I mean, redoing the brightwork (or refinishing the wood on the boat) is the bane of many a boaters existence! That's why I'm a big fan of Tom Fabula's product called Honey Teak!

I first used Honey Teak many years ago on my 1982 Catalina 25. The teak was abused, shriveled and black and green in color. Rotten! But teak is an amazing wood. The natural oils present in it protect it from salt, sea, sun and YES, even abuse! With a thorough bleach washing and light sanding, the wood came back to life. Then with the prescribed application of Honey Teak, I can honestly say that if I saw that boat today, 10 years after applying it and 7 years after selling it, the teak would probably still look quite good. This product is that good and strong. It's an epoxy based, 2-part system and with multiple coats has a 2-8 year life span.

First the stripping of many many pieces. I'm so happy Stacey was willing to do this messy toxic work! I have the best Admiral a sailor could ask for!

Cleaning some more teak!

Almost ready to begin the finishing!

drying in the sun after a good detergent, bleach and TSP washing!

First two coats of Honey Teak. Applied wet on wet every 15 minutes.

Third and final coat of Honey Teak. Next up is a light scuff of 3m scouring pad after a few days of curing, then Clear Coating!

SO, we hope, that means we won't have to do this again...ever...until the next boat! :)

Next up was a little slice of hell that was a surprise to us when we picked up the boat. We were told there was a little crack in the sprit, no big deal... turns out it was split down the middle, missing the bow roller and about to fall off the boat under the strain of the pulpit!

Minimal damage from the saws all.

nothing a little epoxy can't cure.

Gotta love the use of galvanized house screws here!

The head popped right off after years of corrosion.

Although it came off in less than an hour thanks to the brutality of a reciprocating saw, it was in two pieces (thanks to the abuse the boat received in it's earlier life). Our hope is to epoxy it back together, figure out a way to reattach it to the bow (harder than it would seem, apparently they screwed the sprit in place before they even put the deck on the hull, making the fasteners impossible to reach, let alone re-install, hence the aforementioned sawing!), put a new bow/anchor roller on, after we honey teak the piece. Unfortunately I'll have to fill 6 holes with epoxy, with no way to back them either (to keep the epoxy from oozing our into the inner hull area), we still have to figure out a way to secure the sprit back in place, enough to sail with an anchor and trailer with the mast support resting on the pulpit.

Along with the massive brightwork project, we also had to tackle removing the old rudder-mounted motor mount and filing the holes with epoxy and reinstalling the custom-made scupper piece with a new scupper flap.

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I'm so proud of my newly fabricated scupper drain piece. A scupper flap will be installed on the outside of this. Making it easier to maintain in the future. This piece will be installed with 4 screws and copious amounts of 3M 4200. With a bead of it used to make a flexible yet strong seal on the inside of the cockpit. We have a 1.5" plug to use for keeping the water out while motoring.

Frankenstein bolts sticking out of the transom. This was apparently how the previous owner charged the battery. Battery cables were attached to the other side leading directly to the electrical system. They will be removed and a proper battery charger added with a proper exterior weatherproof plug for connecting to 110 will be installed.

Stage 1 of the filling of the old motor mount holes on the rudder. I used a colloidal silica filler with the west system epoxy. I'll top them off with some straight epoxy, then hopefully drill it back, bevel it and use some gelcoat to make them mostly disappear.

All cleaned up, the 3M stripe remover to the rescue again!

This is where one of the pieces of teak was mounted to the cabin wall. It also was apparently attached before the liner was put in, many of the screws were held by bolts with inaccessible nuts! Time for more epoxy. It was also held in place by what looked like RTV (automotive sealant). The 3M stripe remover rubber disk took care of that.

The residue from the glue that held the old logo badge came off thanks to a scrapper and some acetone.

Next up will be drilling and installing the new heavy duty Garelick motor mount on the starboard side transom...Stay Tuned!