Don Casey's book - This Old Boat - has a relatively thorough section on brightwork. He talks mainly about teak and CupOTea IV has the original mahogany coamings (getting ready to start varnishing them with Epiphanes in two weeks) but he says wait until the last coat or two to bother sanding between coats. Also, has some interesting techniques for keeping air and particles out of the varnish (filtering through panty hose etc)

I'm mostly concerned about finding replacement screws for some of the ones I took out which were shot. Also about applying hole filling techniques seen on other threads to the holes for the screws that hold the coamings on which are horizontal.

Lastly, when I took the coamings off there was what I believe to be an original transluscent rubbery substance of some kind between the wood and the fiberglass. It was on pretty thick in some spots. Wondering what people are using in its place these days when reattaching the coamings.

P.S. This is my first post on this amazing site. Ready to launch Cup O Tea IV this spring. This Commander (#290) is my first boat. The information gleaned here has been immensely helpful.