Saturday 23 August 2008

Stripping The Light Fantastic

The wheelhouse has been a bit scruffy ever since we bought the boat. It has been exposed to the elements for too long without the love and care it needs and was long overdue stripping and re-varnishing, or else the wood itself would stat to get damaged and rotten.

We started with varnish stripper, scraped that off, and then sanded the wood smooth, leaving just the bare oak exposed, which looked fantastic.


On the left, below, you can see the original tatty varnished wood, and on the right the bare oak.

I would have loved to have left it like that but we decided that varnish was the best way to protect it against the elements and so we then applied a good coat of varnish, which actually looked great too, as it made the grain of the wood almost glow.



I also then sanded and varnished the various strips of wood which cover the gap betwen the roof and walls.

Having finished the front of the wheellhouse we then completed the starboard side, and as they were the worst affected (they must have been in the way of the prevailing wind for the last few years) we can then do the final two sides when we have the time.

4 comments:

Melissa Fehr Trade said...

wow, all stages of that are an improvement on the Before photo. It looks absolutely fantastic!

steve said...

yes, it was such a satisfying job to do, one of those rare things that aren't THAT hard, and yet have a massive effect on the look of the boat. When i look at the before pics now i can't believe it ever looked that bad!

bowiechick said...

It isn't that the jobs are difficult it just takes some TIME. Alas, that is the difficult bit. What you've done looks splendid!

steve said...

Cheers! Now stripping the (blue) paint off the 48 square metres of main roof, and then painting it...blue, THERE'S a job that takes forever and doesn't feel like you're achieving anything! Nearly done on that too now though, just 2 panels to go. Expect a post soon...