Today I got a couple of big things accomplished - it sure is nice to be back in the position of finishing projects and reassembling parts I had removed back in November. First, I put on the second and final coat of Interlux Brightside bootstripe paint, and it looks great.
Taped…
Tape removed!
…and on the stern…
…And looking good!
The second thing was that I reattached the wooden coaming tops. Over the winter, I had stripped them down to bare wood because I had not maintained the old varnish, and it cracked and looked terrible. So I started over and gave them ten - yes, ten - coats of varnish. They look absolutely fantastic. I made sure to put 5200 around the holes on the tops of the fiberglass coamings as well as under the head of the screws. No leaking will happen here!
As you can tell by the photos, I have already attached the new stern quarter cleats. What an awful job. As I mentioned in a previous post, they were located in such a terrible spot; it was extremely difficult to reach up and around through the cockpit lockers, and trying to get the machine screws to poke through the backing plate holes was nearly impossible. Yet, somehow, I managed to do it, but I sure swore a lot.
So, that’s the latest. The next tasks will be to reattach the companionway hatch with the tracks, attach the new plastic backing plate where the digital compass goes, and reattach the hatchboard slides. More fun with 5200 goo!