Work continues...and continues...and continues...

Another weekend has come and gone while trying to get finished with the sailboat. We made some headway and some victories were had along the way!

Brightwork:
I was able to get the top sides washed, de-oxidized, polished and waxed in the areas that wood was to be reattached. Really just got the dog house done.

After two days of solid work, we only had time to mount the companionway hatch front/pull handle, slides, handrails. There appears to be a problem with the hatch boards fitting, we will have to modify them to fit :(

Bowsprit:
I was able to fabricate some blocks of wood and wedge them into the bow coated with epoxy resin after sealing up the holes in the bow left from the original bowsprit's fasteners. This would give us the opportunity to screw through the sprit, into the bow of the boat and have the screws contact something more than just fiberglass. Luckily it worked!! It was never a precise fitting piece anyway and it appeared they had simply just filled the voids with sealant. So we did the same. It seems very strong.

The brightwork is done! Finally!

I love the look of nicely cared for and crafted teak on a sailboat. It makes them shippy and romantic and warm...but I hope I never buy another boat with this much or more wood on it! It's been a long few weeks of detailed work to get the pieces here to a finished state. I finally finished last night by getting 3 coats of Honey Teak/Signature Finish clear coat on the exterior side of the companionway boards. They look like a piano finish!

This is cured, not wet! SHINY!!

Brightwork update, plus bowsprit work continues...

2 Coats of Signature Finish Clear. NO these are not wet, this is almost cured!

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!