Step 1-5/5/2020-Revarnishing the hatches: Where it all begins.
It’s been eight years since I purchased my boat and I’ve gone through a series of adventures and misadventures because of it. I am not going to go over those details at this point. Right now, because of the Covid-19 Pandemic, I am complying with “stay at home” orders. In the meantime urged by Sandra, my girlfriend who is frankly getting on my nerves from having to be cooped up together for so long, I’ve thrown all financial caution to the wind and have begun trying to bring the Causeaican to an acceptable mechanical and cosmetic condition.
I started revarnishing the hatches around December and finally really got serious about finishing the job when we went into the "Stay at Home" phase of the pandemic.
It took me up to the rainy Memorial Day Weekend to sit down and write this blog. It, like the refitting of the Causeican is a work in progress and you will notice I will come back and rework on the chapters as I continue to fix the vessel.
The Hatches:
I picked up on March 16, three months to the day after I left off on December 17 to apply fifteen coats of varnish to my hatches. After that it took me over two weeks to get to this point, I must say that I am 80% satisfied with how they have come out. I used a heat gun to lift the old layers up then began to sand and lay down the varnish coats. I started with 40 grit sandpaper and soon after, got myself a Bauer orbital sander, sanding discs, a rubber sanding block, and 220 sandpaper sheets. I would hand sand using a block and 220 sandpaper in between coats but then started using the orbital sander instead because it was just faster.
The idea of needing 16 coats of varnish was implanted in me by “Boomer”, one of my neighbors in Galway Bay. The previous coats that I applied lasted over three years. This time I used a lighter wood stain by MinWood and the same boat spar. I am satisfied with the result however as I worked on the hatches I was inspired by the YouTube channel “Sailing Delos” and urged by Sandra to work on the rest of the boat. Within a couple of steps I’ve started to try to achieve perfection and I have become quite critical of my work.
This attitude is affecting me at all phases of the jobs I am doing and perhaps upon writing this I would have improved. Mind you, years ago I tried to get the Causeaican in top shape only to realize that I did not have the knowledge, tools, or patience to do a decent job. I only focused on getting her out to sea and now I realize that you need to take your time to do the work and if you want to reach a level of perfection it’s going to take a lot more time and money to get it done “just right”. Although I started this project over two months ago, it was only yesterday after I installed Starboard to cover the holes on the console and not feeling that I had done a good job I began to write my whole experience out.
In the meantime, the hatches need to be “puttied” and ready to be installed as soon as I work on the spider web cracks that have developed under the pilot seat. I’ve started working on two and three phases of the repairs at the same time. Mostly because I don’t have the tools or materials that I think are needed. At this point I am considering purchasing sheets of 600-800-1200 grit sandpaper to use with the rubber sanding block for the spider web cracks....
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