APRIL 2020
No much time to work on the boat during the COVID19 pandemic and so we picked up work that could be done in our garage. We decided to start restoring the teak bowsprit. It had small dings/damages and the varnish was in very poor condition.
We started by removing the old varnish. It turned out to be a very tedious and time consuming task. We used several techniques: stripping gel, heat gun and sanding. Not sure which one worked best, it almost feel like all of them were required at different stages of the process. This is how it looked after removing most of the varnish:
Once the varnish was removed we cleaned and sanded the entire bowsprit with 40 grit sand paper. This is how it look after cleaning and sanding:
We repaired some of the dings and damages with epoxy thickened epoxy resin:
I was enjoying this project as since I didn’t have much more to do I decided to make it complicated and expensive…. I thought… What if I add several (6) layers of 1708 biaxial cloth with epoxy to the bottom of the bowsprit for greater strength and resistance to water… Off I went:
- Cut fiberglass cloth. Prep work and wipe down with acetone:
2) First and second epoxy coat, I let it soak for few hours before I started laying fiberglass:
3) Lay down 6 layers of 1708 biaxial fiberglass cloth and finished up with a final layer of fairing compound:
Next steps:
- Trim, sand and fair fiberglass (bottom of the bowsprit)
- Sand, apply coats of clear epoxy and to finish it few coats varnish to the top and sides of the bowsprit. Varnish will protect the epoxy from UV
More updates to come!!
PM