Spreaders up, Headstay up.

YO! It's been a busy week or two, but I have had some time to get some important projects completed around the boat. Most notably, the new spreaders are all done and are aloft. They look MUCH better than the old ones, and they won't give me a heart attack every time I go sailing. With the new spreaders in place, I was able to take down the old headstay, which had sustained some damage when I came in to the public dock at Old Sac. Next came pulling off the chainplate which had been tweaked in the same incident that required me to patch the stem.
Epoxy is currently curing in the old fastener holes, and once that's done I'll drill new holes for the new chainplate that I fabricated and slam that bad boy in and it should all be downhill from there.
Unfortunately (or more appropriately - fortunately) I recently acquired a Ranger 23, and that has been taking up a lot of my time... At least I can take that one out sailing!
Anyhow, I need to DL some photos and do a little cyber-housekeeping but stay tuned for a full update of the rest of the spreader action, as well as the chainplate and perhaps a little Ranger fun!

cheers.

Spreaders done, going up during next 36 hrs

Finish work is done, hardware has been mounted on the spreader that had been removed from the rig, and I am about to mix up some Smith's Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer to seal the holes where the clevis pins go through.

Then time to put them in the rig.

Details to follow.

Spreader Update

Well, seems there isn’t a whole lot to comment on about the spreader progress recently. The weather has not exactly been accommodating in the bay area as of late, and I have been the victim of a re-occurring back ailment, so progress has not been, shall we say, speedy. Be that as it may, forward progress is being made.

After setting the epoxy fastener slugs, I moved on to coating the spreaders. I’ve always liked the look of varnished spreaders (if you’re going to have wooden spreaders), but varnish isn’t exactly the best defense for the relentless barrage of UV. So I decided to paint the topsides of the spreaders and varnish the bottom.

I taped off the areas that I didn’t think I wanted varnished, and put one coat of Z-Spar Flagship Varnish thinned 50% with the recommended thinner, allowed the amount of drying time prescribed by the label then sanded and put another Flagship coat on, thinned 25%, followed by two coats of 15% thinned Flagship. It was at this point that I broke out the Bristol Finish. After prepping the surface to be varnished, I laid on five more coats, for a total of nine coats.

I then spent at least two hours pulling tape, trying my best not to completely ruin what I had done so far. Now for the topsides. I taped off the varnish work I had just completed, leaving a slight overlap of the paint over the varnish, to ensure a good seal of the wood. As before, I thinned the first coat of Pre-Kote 50% to ensure thorough penetration, then waited and sanded as directed, following with a full Pre-Kote before two coats of Hatteras Off-White Premium Yacht Enamel.

Then I spent two more hours pulling tape off of the spreaders. I believed that they were ready for the final round. I busted out my best sandpaper and took those spreaders to town. Once deemed ready for tape, they were cleaned and wiped down, then got taped for some varnish, allowing an overlap of the varnish over the paint. Unfortunately, they were left out on a damp night in what would have been their final coat, so they ended up getting one last go-round in the varnish department.

More removal of tape ensues.

Followed by more sanding.

More application of tape ensues, this time overlapping the painted areas over the varnished areas by about two millimeters, as before.

That, I believe, brings us to tonight’s proceedings.

With the [varnished areas of the] spreaders fully taped off, I mixed up some Hatteras thinned 10% and put on just about as thick a coat as I could before any sagging occurred. They are, as I type this, drying in a shed shoreside. I figure: it’s Tuesday, I’m not going to be able to put them up until Saturday, so, might as well put one more coat of paint on them… so it’s possible that one more coat goes on, but I may become impatient and just start putting the mounting hardware on, given that I would have to wait sixteen hours just to get to sand them...