Jilted

The brand of varnish a boat owner uses on brightwork is an intensely personal choice.  Should you be walking down the dock and see someone applying varnish, you may ask what they are are using, but you should never then make a comparison with what you use.  Commenting on someone's varnish choice is akin to commenting on their choice of a spouse.  Whatever thoughts you may have, you must keep them to yourself.

The varnish we have been using on Eolian ever since we came to be responsible for her care is Interlux Gold Spar #95.   I'd like to be able to tell you that we tested 20 brands, talked to everyone on several docks and did intensive internet research before settling on this choice.  I'd like to be able to tell myself that.  But I can't. 

Instead, I chose this brand because it was available; we kind of found each other.  But after living with it for more than a decade, #95 is a choice I have become comfortable with.  It is predictable.  I know how to take advantage of its strengths and how to work with its weaknesses.  

Then last summer as we prepared for the annual brightwork extravaganza, disaster struck.  Good Old #95 was not available, anywhere. 

It was off the shelves.  

It had been... discontinued! 

I literally felt jilted.

I was unprepared to be thrown back into the varnish marketplace.  All I wanted to do was buy a can of Good Old #95 and get to work, but that was just not to be.

First there was denial:  "If we call enough stores, we will find one that stocks #95..."  Nope.

Then anger:  "How could they do this to us?!  We have been loyal customers.  What about all the loyal customers??!"  But of course, this led nowhere.

Finally, we reached a reluctant acceptance.  And we timidly entered the cacophony of the current varnish marketplace.  There were claims: "Smooth!"  "Silky!"  And promises: "One coat will last all year!"  "Applies itself while you sit in the shade and drink a beer!"

But in the end, we went with the recommendation from Varnish Luke* - a guy who flies under the radar, making a living by doing brightwork for folks at Shilshole.  We used Petit Flagship.

It's too soon to tell if this will be a long-term relationship.  Or a one year stand.

* Name changed.

Jilted

Woodworking, writ large

When Jane and I were building a house back in 1978, we needed two 24 foot long 4x14 timbers to use as heavy hip rafters.  Now, this was before the era of Home Depot, but I assure you, you couldn't then, any more than now, go to a lumber yard and find such timbers.  Rather surprisingly, the tough part was the 24 foot length.  Even in 1978, most lumber mills had carriages only long enough to cut 16 foot logs.

But amazingly, in Chewelah at that time, there were two operating lumber mills with 32 foot carriages.  So I was able to see the logging truck head up into the mountains past my under-construction house, and a few hours later come back down with one enormous log on it.  Two days later, the lumber mill delivered my timbers.

Today of course, you'd use a glue-lam or one of those things made up of glued together wood chips.

But suppose it's today, and you wanted an 80 foot timber to replace one of the C.A. Thayer's masts?  And a glue-lam or woodchip thingy simply wouldn't do?  A century ago, this would not have been a problem...  any number of West Coast mills would have been happy to fill your order. 

But not today.

Amazingly, you'd still have one mill that could handle the order - the Hull-Oakes sawmill, near Corvallis, Or.  The link leads you to Gary Katz's excellent website where he takes you on a tour of this still-steam-powered mill.  

I am gratuitously posting a linked version of one of the pictures from Gary's site here only to whet your appetite.  You really owe it to yourself to take Gary's tour of this mill.

A hat tip to Craft a Craft for pointing out this treasure.

(Somewhat tongue-in-cheek, I am tagging this post "carpentry")

Woodworking, writ large

New crew training: Lesson #1

Our granddaughter Hazel is now 9 months old - certainly old enough to begin training for her crew position on Eolian.

So when Ken and Erica brought her on board recently, we started.  It went something like this:

Me - "Why don't we sit down and learn about the catches that hold the drawers shut in a seaway."

Hazel - "La!  Laoooie."

Me - "The hook, which is made of brass and is attached to the framework gets fitted into the eye on the drawer."

Hazel - "Reeeeee!"

Me - "In this way, the drawer is prevented...  No, wait.  Hazel?  No honey..."

Hazel - "Mummm.  Mmmm..."

Me - "OK, maybe now really is a perfect time to learn what brass tastes like."

We are looking forward to many more crew training sessions.

New crew training: Lesson #1

Heat gun

Speaking of tools... We were speaking of tools weren't we?   Here is one which you should probably have on your boat:

Yep, a heat gun - kind of like a hair dryer on steroids.  This is a serious tool - the air it delivers is so hot that it will set wood on fire - like all serious tools, you should have a care when using it.

And like many tools, when it is needed, it may only be needed for a few seconds, but oh, what a difference those few seconds can make.

Here are some of the things ours has helped with:

• Formica removal (at the nav station) - heat the Formica enough to soften the contact cement holding it to the wood.
• Head hoses - coat the outside of the fitting and the inside of the head hose with silicone and then heat the hose (carefully, slowly) until it is pliable.   The hose then goes on the fittings *so* easily, and the hose clamps are much more effective at compressing the hose against the fitting.
• Heat a piece of 1" head hose enough to get it over a 1 1/4" fitting - this saved our bacon when an engine hose split under way.
• Heat large-bore shrink tubing for battery cables
• Soften varnish for removal.  Every so often the brightwork demands that you start over with bare wood.  There is a slip-on scraper that comes with the tool (it goes right over the air nozzle), but I prefer to use my own scraper.

You know you want one.

Heat gun