(more) painting

One of the many truisms of owning a wooden boat (or any boat) is that maintenance is never done. There will be always something to work on, replace, polish, or paint. This is what happens when you use a man made object in a corrosive medium such as saltwater. Combine that with the age of boats such as Spark, and you can see why there is always something that needs doing.

After 56 years of protecting the interior of my GP, the varnish covering the plywood, ribs, and stringers was not looking so good. The parts covering the plywood were especially rough. With this in mind I decided a bit of "oyster white" from Rustolium's marine line would spruce everything up nice and ship shape.

The plan is to leave the ribs, stringers, and hog varnished, but just paint the plywood. It means a lot of masking, but leaves all the beautiful solid wood in view while protecting the more vulnerable ply.

How she looked originally (after removing the seating and sole)

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I only got one coat on one section before the bugs sent me screaming back into the house. I think the gnats had been starving all winter as they were out in force tonight and looking for blood. Unlike Mosquitoes with their fine hypodermic needles, these little buggers tear off a chunk of skin and suck up the blood. They are lots of fun at parties.

I know what I am doing tomorrow.. and probably all next week as I get Spark ready to go back in the water for June.