Eye Brow Trim – Finished

Finally finished up this little project. Always a challenge when I have to dodge rain drops. I installed the trim back into a fresh application of Boatlife teak-colored bedding compound, then installed the plugs with varnish as glue. Some folks use shellac, but varnish seems to work just as well. Gluing them in with anything stronger makes them difficult to remove next time.

Plugs set, waiting for the varnish to cure so I can trim and sand flush.

To trim, set a sharp (very sharp) chisel 1/8″ proud of the surface being finished, and gently tap. The top of the plug splits away. You can do this several more times for a curved profile to pare away excess material at the edges before you begin to sand. Just don’t set the chisel too closely to the base material, or the plug may split away below the surface. I set the beveled edge of the chisel towards the eyebrow so that plug tends to split up and away from the base. After trimming with a chisel, use a small block with 150 grit sandpaper wrapped around, and sand only the proud part of the plug, as much as possible. You will certainly sand a little bit of the base material as well, but careful attention to the level of the plug will keep it to a minimum. After all is smooth and flush, coat with your finish of choice. I use Cetol on these.

Done. Trimmed, sanded, and coated with Cetol.

More Eye Brow Work

No, I’m not plucking. . .

I applied the second coat of Cetol to both sections of eye brow trim today. Before all the rain and wind last week, I scraped and sanded smooth the trim pieces, and applied the first coat of Cetol. I also deepened the plug holes with my drill press for closing up the screw holes with bungs. However, I had to buy a new plug cutter, because I have mislaid the one I already own. Oddly, this didn’t work well at all. The hardware store sold me a 3/8″plug cutter, and I duly deepened the 3/8″ holes to accommodate a longer plug. However, the diameter of the plugs cut by the new cutter turned out to be slightly small, and didn’t bind into the holes at all. I rechecked my drill bit, rechecked the plug cutter. . . all the sizes matched, but the plugs didn’t fit the holes. I wound up buying some 3/8″ teak plugs at West Marine, and they fit fine.

Today I also cleaned up the coach roof edge where they will be reinstalled. I’ve found that a product called “Goof Off” works really well for this, but as I was in the hardware store today buying a new bottle of it, it occurred to me that lighter fluid might be a similar product. I know several craftsmen who use it for cleaning purposes. Regardless, I came home with Goof Off.

Materials and tools for this task.

Once back on the boat, I used a rag saturated with Goof Off and wiped in on a 12-14 inch section, then took a putty knife and scraped the loosened bedding compound. This took off about 75 percent. I re-applied Goof Off, and scrubbed it with a 3-M pad, which almost always removed the rest of the material. This entire process took about a half hour to do the port side (rehabbed the starboard side last year). So it’s clean now, and ready for re-installation of the trim.

Close-up of the cleaned vs uncleaned area.

Just a longer view of the project area.

Finally, I began the spring Cetol re-coat of the other teak trim still installed in place. I actually got smart this time, and didn’t try to do all of it at once, there by avoiding bumping into sticky Cetol as I work my way around the deck.

 

Bad Weather And Roller Furling

Roller furling headsail opened by strong winds.

One morning a few days ago, I looked across the creek and saw the above. It was a miserable day, weather-wise – rain and strong winds all day. I mentioned to Ruth that I hoped someone in the marina would help that boat owner and go re-furl his headsail. Obviously, I don’t live far from this marina, and was considering going over there myself to do it.  Several minutes later, I noticed that it had been rolled up. Good on several levels: 1) there were live-aboards in that marina (I knew there were) who were looking out for other boat owners, and 2) I didn’t have to go out in the rain and wind and do it myself :-).

Last week, when sailing by myself, I realized I didn’t miss or regret giving up my roller furling. I know most people love their roller furling sails, and that’s great. I liked mine too, when I had it. But I was always a bit anxious about a problem with rolling up, or unrolling. There was always the possibility of something going amiss, and then I would really be in trouble, especially if alone. So now I keep my headsail in a deck bag, and hanked onto the fore stay. I have absolutely no trouble with it, even if it takes a few minutes more to stow at the end of a sail. And best of all, I don’t worry about it coming unfurled if the wind blows hard and long, and I’m not there to take care of it. I always tied a piece of line around the furled sail as far up as I could reach, but that’s not too far up – there was a lot of sail left unsecured above my head.

Here’s a link to the post where I discuss my decision to switch from roller to hank-on: https://wordpress.com/posts/middlebaysailing.wordpress.com?s=roller+furling

Anyway, still happy with my decision to switch to a bare stay and hanked on sail.

Port Eye Brow Rehab

I started this project about a year and a half ago, and lost momentum. I’m finally back at it, as the port side eye brow is absolutely embarrassing now. Add to that the fact that half the bungs are missing, and it’s just in a very bad state.

I removed the screws after splitting out the remaining plugs. There was a fair amount of something in the screw head slots – not sure what it was, but probably whatever was used to stick down the plugs originally. I guess some of the material has been lost from the teak trim pieces, as many of the screw heads were not too much below the surface of the wood.  No way would a plug stay in there. That means I’ll need to deepen the recesses for the screws. Screws out, and that was the easy part. Next was to separate the trim from the coach roof. It was bedded on to the coach roof with a sealant that released pretty fairly well with paint thinner, but much better with acetone. Still, it took a patient and careful 45 minutes to slide a couple of putty knives between the surfaces.

Had to work it from both ends, as one of the screws (not an original) was too short to thread out, but too far in to easily release.

As I gently pried the trim from the coach roof, I poured a little acetone into the crack that was revealed. That allowed me to separate 3-4 inches. Finally I separated the last few inches, and the remaining screw lifted out of the hole. I was happy to get the trim off in one piece.

Now, just lots of clean up left to do.

Next step is removing the old sealant, and cleaning up the trim pieces in preparation for new finish.

Sunday Sailing

After church, after lunch, after a nap, I threw off the mooring lines and motored out into the bay with the wind in my face. I was heading south, the wind was heading north. The wind forecast said 8-10 knots on the bay, but in Herring bay it was more like 15-20. With sufficient sea room to drift for a while, I went to work taking a reef in both sails. After sorting out the lines and making sure all was ready, I hauled up the sails and heeled pretty far over. Cracking off the wind a bit helped put me more upright, and I guess I really should have loosened the main sheet as well, but I wanted to go “that way,” which meant I had to stay fairly close hauled.

Crystal clear weather, puffy white clouds, about 80 degrees, and moving between 5.5 and 6.5 knots (just about as fast as we can go) – life just doesn’t get too much better. I’ve been waiting for this all winter and spring. I love sailing by myself.

I noticed that I had missed a reefing line in the jib, so I hove to and went forward to tie it in. Now it’s neat. I followed the wind around, jibed the main, and was back on track. The depth sounder flashed in and out, alternating between the depth and giving an error message. It did this last spring as well, for the first couple of sails – it settled into reliable service just as I was getting serious about shopping for another instrument. I’ll keep my eye on it.

Taking spray over the bow, realizing I forgot to seal the fore hatch. A two-inch opening in the hatch can get things damp. Not going to close it now – I don’t want to leave the helm again. A little water will dry soon enough. Starting to see crab pot markers, and I can see a fish trap in the distance – that stand of sticks in the water, with water birds waiting like vultures on top of each one. Must be an easy meal for them. Past the trap another half mile, and it’s time to turn around. This time I pass to the south of it, and the birds are still undisturbed.

I guess the wind readings on the open bay were accurate, because I no longer need the reefs. I’m not going to shake them out, though. I’ll be back in the land breeze area pretty soon, and I’ll need the shortened sail area again. Cross the channel again and heave to, dropping first the main in the shadow of the backed jib, then releasing the jib halyard and going forward to pull it down. I have a down haul, but never attach it. I’m not satisfied with how I’ve got it rigged. I think I must need to run the line through the hanks, right next to the forestay, to keep it out of trouble.

Sails are bagged or covered, and I’m motoring back up the creek. By the time I reach the slip, I’ve covered 9.75 miles, and the depth sounder is behaving better.

Should have neatened up this reef too.

Painting done, and She’s Back in the Slip

I sanded smooth the first batch of fairing compound on the port side, and did the same with a couple of other smaller areas, then refilled the same area (port side) with another batch of compound to bring all the repairs up to surface level – and picked up the scratches that I missed the first time.

Thought I would add this photo of the sheer in sunny conditions. You can really see how well the paint leveled out.

I resanded the filled areas, and repainted the repairs, then added a second coat to the repaired areas again yesterday. Now the sheer has two finish coats of paint. I began the painstaking task of pulling tape – I don’t know what I was thinking when I used the blue painter’s tape. The difficulty of removal just isn’t worth the $5 I save by using the cheap stuff. I had to leave a couple areas taped on the rub rail, as I couldn’t peel them off easily, and the paint was still too fresh to work on it without marring the finish.

Finished repair and two coats of paint.

And today the boat yard launched Cay of Sea – Nice to have her back in her slip!

Home for the season.

Stripes! Sheer and Boot

I’ve been lucky with weather for a couple of days, and I’ve been able to prep, tape, repair and paint both stripes. I completed the touch-up on the boot stripe yesterday, after painting the entire area on Saturday.

As it turns out, boot stripes are really hard to photograph. It may look a bit hazy, but that lighter area you see on the stripe is a reflection of the ground.

I’ve been using Pettit Easy Poxy topside paint (Forest Green) for the bootstripe for several years, and I’m very pleased with the ease of application and the amazingly smooth and glossy finish. The paint levels out very well and leaves a very shiny appearance.

The sheer stripe was a bit harder to prep and repair, if only because it was all done standing on a ladder. The old 2-part polyurethane paint had started cracking chipping in a few places – possibly where that part of the gunwale took a hit against a piling, or some such thing. Regardless, I dug out the spider cracks, eased the edges of the chips, and filled with epoxy fairing compound.

Cracks enlarged and filled.

I also touched up the bottom paint along the waterline, some chips here and there, etc. Next session of work, I’ll sand all of that smooth, fine-sand the first coat, then repaint the entire sheer stripe.

Here’s a photo of the first coat of paint on the sheer stripe. Sorry about the ladder.

A couple more days of work, and I’ll be ready for launch.