It's always something

Whomever first came up with this phrase must have been working on a boat.

Last night I sanded the boom down to fresh wood. This task was actually harder than doing the mast as the boom is a square section as opposed to the mast's oval. This meant 4 sides plus the ends all needed to be brought down to bare wood in anticipation of fresh varnish. Thankfully I decided to fill all the screw holes and re-drill them later. The wood was darkened around them where water had used the holes to get in around the varnish and start a little rot.

After purchasing a 1/4" (4mm) dowel, I proceeded to drill out each screw hole to the same size. In doing so some blacked wood shavings came out and at the trailing edge of the boom, the carved in sail track split. Hence the use of the term "It's always something."

But, it could be worse, I might have discovered this little issue on my first sail instead of during preparation for varnish. While not life threatening, It would have quickly brought an end to my sailing for the day and possibly the week until I got it properly repaired.

First: Dowels.

 

And of course, the split and the repairs. Thank goodness that as a boat builder and restorer, I follow the rule that "you can never have enough clamps". I only needed three, but they were right there for the use after I applied some thickened epoxy. Tomorrow I sand again and can hopefully start varnishing!