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...