Bright Wood And Varnish

Article By Gene Heard

Hi Shorty,

More photos ! She's starting to come together !

The thwart and daggerboard box trim were originally joined with steel pins. The wood had been exposed to weather long enough for all varnish to flake off, so water had penetrated the wood and rusted the pins. I took everything apart and glued and clamped all cracks with Gorilla Glue....good stuff, but it needs to be clamped ! I cut the heads off some 1/4" stainless bolts to replace the pins, ground some small notches in them to give the glue a grip, then put it all back together with Gorilla after the varnish was dry.

I used a piece of .040 Polyethelyene (I think) for a daggerboard gasket. It is used as shower underlayment. I marked the centerline as a guide to cut it after installation. It's pretty tight, so I may have to trim a little. Pre-punched all the holes and laid it in Life Caulk. Put a dab of Life Caulk on all holes in the fiberglass. Easy with the Life Caulk, it's MESSY ! The nuts on all throughbolts were backed up with stainless washers, as the nuts had been crushing into the wood.

I also drilled some new holes for the ends of the traveller control lines. This will provide full travel on the traveller if I decide to use blocks for the control lines on the traveller car. If it isn't class legal...and that ever becomes a concern....I'll just move them back to the original holes !

Nice part of getting old....I've mislaid the hiking strap....It'll show up when I'm NOT looking for it ! When the weather allows, I'll drag her outside and rig her for some more photos...

Later,
Gene