Sea Sprite 23 #670 "Heritage"

[Chance]

Hello all,

I know, I know, It's not a great Commander or an Ariel, but it's still a classic Alberg design that I now find myself steward of. So..., based on a few folks on this wonderful forum who have expressed an interest in my latest vessel endeavors, here's her debut:

Her lines were orinally drawn in 1959 by Carl Alberg and she was marketed as the "ALBERG 23", later changed to Sea Sprite 23. This vessel is hull # 760, built in 1982 by C. E. Ryder.

She has not been in the water in over 10 years and I have addressed about all the issues that come with unknowing previous owners, deferred maintenance and a slight bit of neglect. With that being said however, she was not in bad shape by any means, just needed some of the classic TLC and a caring new steward.

It is my hope that I'll still be welcomed here on this wonderful forum. In my humble opinion there is no other forum that comes close in quality, detailed activity and caring, tallented and professional stewards of our Alberg designs.

Thank you,
Chance Smith
Camden, NC

[carl291]

Hello Chance, It's truly great to hear of your new project, that's a great boat for sure, The place that modified my Ariel trailer to haul the Triton owns one and he loves it. It needs deck recoring but he hasn't gotten to it yet. Is that a Mass. state registry number?? Is the mast going up or down in pics.? Carl

[Commander 147]

Oh Oh somebody got their commander wet one to many times and it shrunk. :) Well the good thing is now that you shrunk it you should be able to get it wet anytime you want without worrying about it shrinking any more so have you had a chance to splash her yet???

Seriously Chance that looks like a mighty fine vessel you have there. I'm curious about the thru hull on the port side about a foot above the water line. Did somebody reroute the cockpit drains there?

And WELCOME BACK CHANCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Chance]

Carl, and Jerry,
Thank you and it's good to be back!

Carl, you are correct, I do believe the third owner had her there. I now am the fifth owner and have her registered, though I am having trouble identifying the font that is currently displaying her old registry number, that I want to duplicate. I have attached a closeup of the font I'm looking to duplicate.

As for the mast stepping. We (my family) and I had just stepped the mast so that I could obtain accurate marking on all shrouds and stays for measurements on the new rigging. The rigger I chose (Rigging Only up in MA) , recommended I step the mast with the old rigging to find out where her turnbuckles sat once tensioned, instead of assuming the the old rigging was of the right length. So that is why you see the mast stepped in our driveway. It was a rather cumbersome set up. The mast is not that heavy, but at 30 feet, with jumper stays and the normal cap shrouds, fore and back stays, double intermediate (lower) shrouds, halyards and topping lift, it made for an interesting evolution.

Jerry,
The thru hull you noticed is the manual bilge pump discharge point as placed by the builder. It was originally nylon, as was the cockpit drain thru hulls, and sink drain thru hull, but I have replaced all thru hulls with bronze. I have attached a couple of close ups of the thru hulls, with new garolite G-10 backing plates and the new bilge pump and associated plumbing I have installed.

[Chance]

My focus on "Heritage" has been to go over her inch by inch in my efforts to re-commission her. As I have mentioned, she has not been splashed in about 10 years.
Here's more of the thru hull replacement phase that is now complete.

[Chance]

A bit more on thru hulls:

[Chance]

Here's the new cockpit drains I installed. They are Forespar Marelon, 1-1/2" drains.

[carl291]

Chance , very nice work. That hull has the look of a very fast keel boat, I'm sure you will enjoy her!!

[Chance]

Thank you Carl.

I believe she will sail nicely. A few years ago I had the opportunity to sail / motor Commander #269 from St. Michaels, MD to Elizabeth City, NC (10 days) and when not over powered, she sailed beautifully.

An area that needed attention on "Heritage" was her orignal opening bronze portlights. They are Wilcox-Crittenden 5X12s but the sealing rubber was in need of replacement, one dog was bent and non functional (how it got bent I have no idea), and they needed rebedded. I chose butyl tape for the bedding on this application. I was able to locate a foundry (Port Townsend Foundry) in WA, that cast / machined a new dog for me, the bronze cotter pins took some time to locate and the hardest part was finding replacement rubber sealing stock. A also replaced all the mounting fasteners.

Here's a closer look:

[Commander 147]

Chance

You have been very busy since you last poked your head up here. The clean meticulous nature of your work is always nice to see. And I really like those new Forespar cockpit drains.

So tell me is the hand pump the only bilge pump you plan to have on Heritage? On Destiny I'm taking a differant tack. My aging body would only be able to handle a hand pump for so long and then we would just have to sink. And as I thought through it I realized if I'm busy pumping away I can't be doing other necessary things that will need doing in an emergency situation. So I'm going with a double electric pump setup. The first pump will be the one that does almost all of the water pumping work for Destiny. It will be a low volumn inexpensive pump that will pump from the bottom of the keel and do 98% of the work. It will also not cost an arm and a leg to replace annually. The second pump will be a very high volumn pump that will pump from a point higher in the keel and will almost never come on. It will only come on when the water coming in is coming in faster than the small volumn pump can handle. It is my hope that this double setup would give me significantly more time to get to shore than I would have with a hand pump.

[Chance]

Yes, I only plan to have the manual bosworth guzzler 500 pump for dewatering needs.
There was a point in time when I thought of having an electric pump as well (past vessels), but came to the conclusion of keep it simple, keep everything well maintained and sometimes less is more.

I don't see anything wrong with your set up, and honestly it's fairly common. On the other hand, it's not unusual to only see a manual pump installed by the builder, just like it's not uncommon to see no sea cocks on cockpit drain thru hulls, as installed by the builder.

For me, the battery I will be using is very small. Secondly, how long will an electric pump run before the battery charge is insufficient? Thirdly, how to monitor electric pump activity when not on the vessel? Forthly, how to plumb in multiple pumps while still maintaining a clean installation.

A previous owner did have a small rule electric pump installed in this vessel, the install was very poorly done, looked terrible, and so I yanked all of it out, with no intention of re-installing an electric pump.

Every steward of course, has their own idea of the "ideal" set up and that's really what makes our passion for these beautiful boats so interesting. Some where in the emergency dewatering phase of the game a line must be drawn as to critical minimalist, redundancy, back ups, and overkill. For me, I'm choosing minimalist and simplicity.

For what it's worth, Commander #269 (the one I brought down from MD) had nothing other than a manual bilge pump. She didn't even have a plumbed in discharge (thru hull) but instead you yanked out the discharge hose and either placed it over the coaming and toe rail or you dumped it into the cockpit.
A week ago, I visited this vessel I am speaking of, and out of courtesy, cut the locks and dewatered her, pumping for nearly 1-1/2 hours. She had taken on water. Her boot stripe was partically in the water. There was 6 inches of water in the cockpit (scuppers clogged), and worse yet, almost 2 inches of water over the top of the cabin sole! Yes she was sittin "LOW". Just goes to show that not all of our beloved Alberg designs have loving and caring owners. This one obviously has an absentee owner, who self admittingly said he has only used her once in the past two years, so sad. It's hard for me to see a vessel like ours, sit in the water and slowly deteriorate.

Anyways, shes dry now, I hosed out the bilge for him, aired out the cabin for a couple of days, and even replaced a rotten section of bilge hose. Durnig all this, the manual bigle pump worked as designed. My only issue is that the location of the pumping handle can only be manipulated with the starboard cockpit sail locker open! Go figure, what an awkard set up, again as installed by the builder, Pearson Yachts.

At least on "Heritage" the manual pump can be operated sitting comfortable, with all lockers closed and in an up and down motion. So....orientation of a manual pumps installation really does need to be taken into consideration, at least from a stewards perspective, because builders won't necessarily.

Here's anothe shot:

[Chance]

Sorry, Here's the exterior shot of the pumps access.

[Chance]

Here is the evolution of the cabin sole. When I became steward of "Heritage" what remained of her cabin sole was only the fiberglass liner. Originally she was built with a one piece teak and holly plywood sole that the previous owner found it necessary to remove due to the poor condition it was in. The second shot is from the previous owner and is what I was starting with. I my quest to get into this cosmetic aspect of her re-commissioning, I did not take any close ups of the fiberglass liner's cabin sole.

All of the burma teak I'm using is vertical grained and about 1/4" thick.

[Chance]

Here is more of the new cabin sole creation:

[Chance]

More on the cabin sole evolvement:

[ebb]

Chance,
Great you're back.
Love your eyecandy shots of the work. No kidding, a real pleasure!
Your series here on what to do with a cabin sole is classic
and should NOT be buried (poor choice of word) under the SeaSprite23 rubric which
in itself gives no clue to poor souls who want inspiration and instruction on cabin soles.
:cool:Great tip on how to create pressure on the sole boards - and getting them all flat - who doesn't need to know ? ? ?

I wish vbulletin had a better way to access, for example, cabin soles on a search
that aren't buried in dozens of threads - and in a thread, if what you want is even there, is hidden in its bowels.

PHOTO POSTS # 13, 14, 15
Your photo series is a perfect example of why we are here - at this very moment.
But if we wanted to be here at some other time, so much the better on a cold search if we could have immediate access.
I wouldn't mind a line by line list on this site, like a plain list on a page or two, that could be scanned by eye until we came to the subject:
"cabin sole renovation", that gave specific bluelines that dropped us DIRECTLY into the subject, including all the photos. Even archival stuff.


For the love of sailing - absolutely!
But also for the the love of working on these boats - absolutely!

Sorry for the rant.
After years of combing the net, can say that 95% of people out there need to know how to do things.
So we got to make it easy for them, as easy as we can!
It'll keep interest alive in these old Alberg gems.
And given Chance, better boats in the long run.

[Commander 147]

VERY nice work Chance. I really like your cabin sole project a lot. If I had not alread bought the teak and holly plywood sole for Destiny I would follow your example.

As far as the bilge pump conversation we are having I can certainly appreciate your perspective for Heritage. And to be honest when I bought Destiny she did not have any bilge pump other than a loose hand operated thing the previous owner had bought at West marine and tossed on board. She lived most of her summer months on a mooring and never sank to my knowledge. So for you I can certainly see why you would choose to go the way you did. Destiny is a differant situation and has enormous battery reserve with her elec. drive. And I'll have an inboard drive with a prop shaft that can easily spring a leak. Differant boats and differant situations.

BTW I will answer your question on my mast head fitting later but I want to do it with pictures and need to work on something else for right now.

[Tony G]

Phenomenol work, Chance. It is a pleasure to learn from your work.

[SkipperJer]

Chance,
When are you going to be in the water? That's what these boat-things are for.
Jerry

[Chance]

Okay Jerry, rub it in. I know, I know, should be in the water, but....., I not ready yet, mostly financially but also a bit of odds and ends in the projects department.

Tony,
Thank you for the positive feedback. I too, learn much from so many others on this forum. In my humble opinion, there is no equal to this forum and the expertise, creativity and active members are outstanding.

Jerry,
Thank you and I'm sure your cabin sole will look absolutely stunning when your finished. That teak and holley ply you have I know is not inexpensive. I had considered it for short bit, but chose a different path. Sometimes I unintentionally make a big project out of a small one. What's that, making a mountain out of a mole hill, sometimes.....

Ebb,
Your too kind. Okay, so where do you find the time for family, your own projects and work, when you contribute to the forum in such detail? You must have a lap top hanging from the hip, so that every free moment you can do more research and keep those of us who get tired looking at a computer screen informed. Seriously though, your contributions and feedback are very appreciated and If in some small way I can help motivate others or shed light on a project others may be contemplating, well all the better.

I have installed new primary winches and also a newly fabricated back stay chainplate. I increased the size of the chainplate as well as the fasteners, from the original configuration. Additionally, I was appalled at the poor backing plate that was installed by the builder, so took care of that as well thanks to G-10 garolite. One thing is for sure, that one backing plate and others you'll see in the future were a royal pain to install due to the fact that access was via three different six inch holes! No lazarette hatch lid to open up and stick your head and half your body into the work zone. No, I was working with one hand and still finding a hard time to see. Sometimes I had to rely on feel (touch) alone as I couldn't get my arm in the hole and see at the same time.

[Chance]

Here's some close ups of backing plates I have made and installed for the stern cleats, stern chocks, and main sheet deck control blocks:

[ebb]

Could recognize those G10 plates anywhere from those beautiful fillets! Nobody else can do that!

Can understand the shaving foam all over the place,
because you're not used to the smaller boat yet, and things are kinda cramped....

But what is it with the smoked sockeye decor?:D

[Crazer]

Thanks for posting, Chance, I will read with interest as I just acquired SS23 hull #137 off a gentleman on City Island. I'll be sailing her here to Ithaca in about three weeks. This thread will be a great inspiration I'm sure as I work to bring her back.

[Chance]

As in this design, the hatch slides on teak runners. Over time the fiberglass bearing surfaces wear thin and the structural integrity is deminished. After removal, I cleaned up the worn bearing surfaces and laid 30 ounces of cloth (3 applications of 10 ounce) to the bearing surfaces and up the veritcal port and starboard sides of the hatch. After which I filled the weave with thickened epoxy and graphite. The graphite was added to the mixture to enhance this bearing surface wearability (thats the black you see in the photos). Last, was two coats of one part poly, and of course a perfect opportunity for some bright work as well.

[Chance]

Hatch continued:

[Chance]

A lone 8 inch bronze cleat gets rebedded, new fasteners and a new backing plate of a different style:

[mbd]

I don't know Chance,it looks like one of those bolts in the first pic is cut a little shorter than the others. Sloppy sloppy! ;)

Seriously though, it's great to see your first class work again, and on another classic beauty of a boat. Welcome back!

[Chance]

Mike, Thank you Sir. Your feedback and comments are welcome. You must have really beautiful sailing waters up there in Maine and in a couple of weeks you'll be in the sailing season, yes?

Here are photos of the work I found necessary to address isolated water intrusion into the cockpit sole core, around the fiberglass rudder post sleeve. Once again it's a classic example of a production boat's short falls. No real attempt was made to seal the core that surrounded this area when the hole was cut and the fiberglass tube installed, thus a guarantee entry point for water intrusion. Of course a previous owner made an ill fated attempt at sealing this area once the cracks appeared, with some type of sealant or perhaps epoxy, but the right way usually involves much more effort and know how. Here's my solution to address this detail:

[Chance]

cockpit sole repair continued:

[mbd]

Chance, I feel very fortunate to be living here in Maine. My goal for this season is simple: get-the-boat-back-in-the-water!

Now, I've got to ask (maybe you've already answered somewhere) - you do A LOT of epoxying and mixing and fairing, etc., but what brand of epoxy do you use and what is your method of mixing? (I'm sure it's down to a science by now, just like your fillets!)

[Commander 147]

OK Chance

Are you working on this project full time or is all of this stuff you have been posting projects you accomplished while you were not posting here for a time?????????? You sure are getting a lot of good looking work done!

[ebb]

My feeling is that the cousins Pearson knew pretty much what they could get away with getting a boat to market. Glass boats had been around for ten years by 1965.
I saw and corrected (but certainly not with your verve and craftsmanship) some amazing
short cuts and lousey joinery.
The factory got away with a lot of sloppy work in places where the customer would never look. At least not at first.

Ariel's cockpit is molded as part of the lid to the hull.
It is reinforced underneath the cockpit deck with widely spaced stiffeners of 1/2" plywood that are matted onto the woven roving laminate mold that is, from the molding standpoint, the top of the boat, stem to stern, side to side. Can't say that 1/2" ply strips pasted onto a flat surface really stiffens anything. But it does solve oil canning.

Crawling around under a stripped out hull I realized that on this Ariel the cockpit floated, wasn't supported anywhere from the deck down. Of course it is supported by its shell-like structure, but essentially the box of the cockpit and the seats and bridge are not attached to anything. It all hangs there. That's a bunch of unsupported flat, non curved, 'flexible' panels.
The seats are massive. The locker lids on the Ariel are almost 3/8" thick, more in places. NO flex allowed there! There is lot of glass and wood pasted in around the rim of the cockpit where the coamings get attached. It's pretty massive there, but except for the seats it's - how to describe it? -FLEXIBLE everywhere else. Found, for instance, that the ply bulkhead under the bridge isn't attached anywhere to the well. There is/was a variable 1/2" or so unaccessable mould & bug real estate hidden in there. Likewise the aft bulkhead was not attached to the cockpit!

Also noticed at the time that the fiberglass pipe rudder tube went STRAIGHT THRU the cockpit deck without a howdoyoudo of fillet or caulking that you could see from underneath. Or the top. You'd think there must have been something there to sell the boat, caulk, something to at least dress it up.... missing 45 years later.

I think Pearson was fully aware that the tube hole thru the cockpit couldn't be
built up and supported like the tube was at the other end coming into the hull.
The rudder tube in A-338 was well built up in a mass of stalagmite tabbing to the hull, but lacked any similar build up where it entered the cockpit deck. Why?

Can't believe they just forgot to caulk....
Maybe, that given the builtin flex of the cockpit structure, they didn't build it up under the cockpit because any movement of the cockpit as a whole could crack off the rudder tube at the hull!
That's a weak assumption I'll agree - but there has to be some explanation why these boats all have the same construt for a leaky deck rudder tube.
Can't second-guess the cousins.:eek:

[Chance]

Mike,
We vacationed to Maine a number of years ago. We stayed overnight in places like Freeport, Searsport and as far north as Jonesport, and visited many beautiful spots along the way. Never got out on the water, but was able to dream of it non the less. Really liked the maritime musuem in Bath, the towns of Camden, and Belfast. I can see why it must take a lifetime to fully appreciate the natural beauty in a state you find home.

You asked:
My preference is MAS brand epoxy / hardners, mainly because of the non-blushing aspect of their slow hardner. With that being said, I do also have West System hardner and epoxy, but consume mostly MAS.

For filleting, structural bonding and fairing, it gets a little more complicated and there is not one straight answer. It really depends on what I'm doing. Things like temperature, work orientation (flat, vertical or overhead) and scope all have to be factored in.

But in short I use the following in various amounts and mixtures to address the above:
MAS Milled Fiber
MAS Colloidal Silica
MAS Low Viscosity Epoxy
MAS Slow non-blushing Epoxy Resin
West System 404 High Density Adhesive Filler
WS 405 Filleting Blend
WS 406 Colloidal Silica
WS 407 Low Density Fairing Filler
WS 423 Graphite Powder
Milled Glass
Wood Flour

These are used independantly or mixed to achieve the desired epoxy/hardner consistancy I want for the appliation at hand.

It's like a recipe and each craftsman has their own style and preference on what is in it.

The main thing of course is to not mess up the resin / hardner ratio. Everthing else is less critical.

After working with this stuff for so long, you'll soon discover if your mixture is too thin, too thick, too stiff, or if it's workability it right or not.

Then, on top of all that, there is the application technique (finesse).

[Chance]

Jerry,
No full time. Your hit is spot on. I have been working on "Heritage" since becoming her steward this past October. So the work I have been posting is a culmination of the the past six months. I just snapped photos along the way and stored them on the computer. My rate of accomplishment is much slower than this thread would initially indicate. Thanks.

[Chance]

Of the many deck hardware issues, one was to address the bow chocks. First they needed rebedded. Also, the hull to deck joint created an unparrallel clamping surface which caused two of the bronze machine screws to bend when orinially installed. My solution was to install pads that compensate for this, so that the bearing surface of the nut and washer was parrallel with the underside of the chock, thus eliminating the source of a bent fastener when I reinstalled the chocks with new fasteners. Their like mini backing plates (as you can see in the photos).

[Chance]

Here's a look at the new cabin top handrails I fashioned out of some teak. I also installed a teak strip inside the cabin, mainly cosmetic but could also be considered a backing strip of sort. I used 3-1/2" #14 wood screws to secure them and feel that is adequate. For bedding compound I choose Dolfinite natural to permit easy removal when the time comes. Dolfinite is only a sealer, not an adhesive, and remains flexible and can also be painted over after skimming.
The Lake Union shipyard (nears Seattle), where I was on a wooden mine sweeper designed by Phillip Rhodes, used Dolfinite extensively and it is pleasant to work with.

[Chance]

Another area I found needed some attention, so off with the old, worn, and excessively sanded down teak and in with a makeover.

Here's a closer look:

[Chance]

Hatch slide teak continued:

[Chance]

Here's the last three for this update:

[Chance]

Here's a broad view of the 30 foot spar stepped that also shows her jumper struts / stays.

[Chance]

Based on the condition of the original foredeck hatch, I elected to replace it. In the process I had mill out a bit of fiberglass from both the deck and the cabin liner so that the corner radias would match the new hatch. Following the corner radias modifications, I wanted to clean up the opening before bedding the new hatch. Here's a look:

[Chance]

Foredeck hatch opening work continued:

[Chance]

New hatch bedded:

[Chance]

work continued:

[Chance]

Another area that I wanted to address was the badly weathered original teak veneered weather boards. Instead of refinishing them, I wanted to do away with the teak veneer ply and instead went off to the wood shop and found a nice teak board in which I was able to mill these. The original configuration had only two large veneered plywood boards that secured the companionway entry. Here you can see that I choose to make three. I like the look of and find it easier to manage three smaller ones than staying with the orginal configuration.

[Chance]

Here's a closer look at the bright work on the new weather boards. When selecting the teak stock, I was specific about using only vertical grain (quarter sawn) and that the board I had was large enough to get all three pieces from it. This ensured that there would be grain and color continuity between the three weather boards. The splines you see are also vertical grain teak, but from another tree, hence the color difference.

[Porter Wayfare]

I think the font you are looking for is "Goudy Old Style." Yes, it certainly is a good one. It's sometimes included in the selection of fonts that comes with Microsoft Word.

[Porter Wayfare]

About the font, you'll have to make it "Bold." I don't recognize the numeral font exactly, but chances are it's version of Goudy too. It's hard to imagine they got picky enough to change fonts for a registration decal.

[paulsproesser]

Your woodwork and finishing look great ! I wish i could've worked with a clean palatte. What type of varnish did you use? and it looks like a big job ahead for the exterior woodwork , Will you oil it or varnish it ?

[Chance]

Porter,
Thank you for the font ID. I am placing an order for her new registration numbers.

Paul,
Your skills and refinishing are remarkable. Like you, I selected Epifanes Clear Varnish for my bright work. As for the weathered toe rail and coamings, I'm undecided as to what I'll do. A concern I have is sanding them down to achieve an acceptable starting point for the varnish. The wood has already been sanded down, who knows how many times, and fear that my attempt could result in bungs being displaced. Additionally I have no experience in how to bring back older, weathered teak to an acceptable starting point, and am not too keen on experimenting with her teak, that is currently in sound, albeit a slight unsightly, condition.

[Chance]

"Heritage" was missing her original motor well hatch cover when I assumed stewardship of her. After much thought, I came up with my own version and have been slowly developing her from scratch.
In my humble opinion, my creation is better than the original in both appearance, strength, fitment and integrity.
The design, although not overly complicated, took into account that the shape as viewed from the top is actually trapazoidal and not rectangular as I originally thought. I also wanted to match the decks camber on the top of the hatch and found it necessary to duplicate the camber to the lower sides (bottom edges) of the hatch cover so that it would seat properly.
I also wanted to ensure that it would achieve the following: look right, like it belonged, be strong enough for an adult to stand upon it and enhance the overall appearance and integrity of her refit.
As many of you may know, attention to detail, not swiftness in accomplishment seem to be more my style. Make no mistake, the photos of progress do not depict the time invested in this one project, now nearing completion.
Here's some of the earlier stages of the process:

[Chance]

work continued:

[Chance]

work continued:

[Chance]

work continued

[Chance]

work continued:

[Chance]

work continued

[Chance]

work continued:

[Chance]

work continued:

[Chance]

work continued:

[ebb]

Chance, you do such nice work, it's a pleasure to witness the progression(s).

I've been using Epifanes for brightwork that is going to be hung on the boat soon. Its great stuff and produces a beautiful finish. It has a sister companion that is even easier to use and builds up coats faster (woodfinishgloss).
It does require thinning with a system thinner....I allow myslf just one thinner or addfitive. When I find
a hardware store variety, or I'm tipped about it, will certainly use that one. Varnish is varnish.
How recoats go on is also part of the parcel and should be direct and easy to do.

I've used LeTonkinois on other trim along side of the pieces done with E.
Cannot tell the difference between the two varnishes. At eight coats each on mahogany, honestly can't tell the difference between the two.
Epifanes is a technical tung oil varnish creature made with a number of solvents, aliphatic hydrocarbons and cautions about breathing its vapors. Goes on great. Has a great rep for UV resistance. IE recoat time.

Tonk is high temp boiled linseed and tung oil whose instructions for use is to apply with brush or spraygunm and clean with white spirits
- which I assume can also be used to thin the varnish but there are no instructions on thinning. There is one full day between coats. Don't need to sand. But you sand like maybe we all do because that's the only way to knock the anomalies flat.
Both varnishes repeat valleys, hills and fisheyes thru many coats, so to get ahead sanding is the only way to go.
Scotchbrite pads might or might not work depending on what you want to achieve. Epifanes varnish requires each coat sanding like all traditional varnish - but you can skip with LeTonkinois. I'll stick without creating dust.
Feel that Tonk is a more casual, friendly, ole-timey, forgiving material.

Tonk is a tougher varnish as it ages, claims equal or better UV resistance. Has no aromatic or chloronated solvents in it.
About this product ALONE, You can breathe it (not the spray, of course) and touch it without
causing liver damage.
It's easier to add a maintainance coat, as the season changes.
Probably an easier varnish to keep and use on board.:cool:

White spirits, mineral spirits, is a petroleum distillate. Don't want to breathe the stuff.
Odorless spirits is the same material further refined to remove the harmfull aromatics. Might be easier/safer to haave around the boat and shop.

I think LeTonkinois should be explored by us varnishers and talked about here in the Forum.

[Chance]

Thank you Ebb.
I'll look into Tonk as an option.

When the fastener heads are visible, I like to "Clock" the heads. That is, to ensure that the slots align with one another and are in keeping with the symmetry, in this case they were aligned athwartship. Perhaps a trivial detail to some, but for those that are keen on attention to details, I think it matters, plus it looks nicer.

Here's today's shots:

[ebb]

ATTENTION! IT's in the details. It's no accident!
And it's thumbs up to later craftsmen who see what others miss - and whistle because they knows it means a job well done. Didn't know the expression, until now, thanks!


[Just happened to flash on MaineSail's Book of Better Butyl Booping -
and I'm not going to go look the article up this moment - assume that everybody's seen it -
but THERE is one gent who believes in DETAIL......
You know, it's where he's showing us in Jiminy Cricket eyeball photo close ups exactly how to load up a flatheadmachinescew to make butyl work when putting stuff together for the long term.... deck fastenings, new windows, trim.

But can't recall if his attention to detail soldiered up screw slots and the flats of hex nuts on cabin ports and stanchion bases? -
I think I wood have noticed!

SO, from now on I'm gonna have to check out Whozit's philips heads to see if they are clocked in Xs or +s ! ! !:D

[paulsproesser]

Porter,
Thank you for the font ID. I am placing an order for her new registration numbers.

Paul,
Your skills and refinishing are remarkable. Like you, I selected Epifanes Clear Varnish for my bright work. As for the weathered toe rail and coamings, I'm undecided as to what I'll do. A concern I have is sanding them down to achieve an acceptable starting point for the varnish. The wood has already been sanded down, who knows how many times, and fear that my attempt could result in bungs being displaced. Additionally I have no experience in how to bring back older, weathered teak to an acceptable starting point, and am not too keen on experimenting with her teak, that is currently in sound, albeit a slight unsightly, condition.

When I Started with my coamings I pressure washed them which cleaned the rite up and brought back the woods natural color without sanding at all and due to the fact you can't keep all that teak covered I would oil it.