Woody Bits

 The weekend started out with a short list of things to accomplish.  Primarily finishing the attachment of the various parts from last weekend and all of the cleats and blocks.  I began by employing the Willing First mate (WFM) to ratchet on some nuts in the cabin while I held the bolt from the topside.  The rest of the day was spent on home projects that all consumed time but I did finish up the day back on the boat and sanded down the thru hull patches I had epoxied and 6 spots on the rudder that were ground, filled and sanded.  I also sanded down the last 10 inches of the boom where the varnish had failed; as this was the part of the boom that is outside the mainsail cover.  I applied a coat of varnish but the color will never match the amber hue of the rest of the boom.

I have now decided to paint this tip of the boom with the off white deck paint and actually make it contrast on purpose.  I have seen this done to the tips of masts on gaff rigged boats and I believe I have seen the tip of the booms done as well but can't be certain.  It could be considered a safety feature.  A streak of white that you see out of the corner of your eye before the swinging boom hits you up side the head on an unexpected jibe.

I assembled the blocks and cleats with butyl.  Not sure if that will work out the best.  As time goes on it works it's way out the sides and requires re-tightening of the screws.  As a matter of fact all of the hardware I have mounted in butyl has required re-tightening as it settles in.  Not sure if it is the heat just making the butyl relax more as there is no load on the hardware.  I test fitted and the gap under the block is much greater than under the winch pads.  I decided to make bases for the blocks out of the resin impregnated plastic board I have.  4 pads were made and all the edges eased over on the router table and sanded smooth.  They will remain unpainted as I am having a hard time getting paint to stick to this stuff.  It must take some special primer.  The other bases (stanchion) that I made from the same material and painted have all flaked off under the least amount of pressure.

The bases I screwed to the bottom of the blocks and got ready again for the install, first dry fitting everything.  Then I bedded these in 5200.  This stuff is messy to work with but is the absolute best for this kind of mounting.  I may re-bed the cleat, thus my choice to use butyl, but do not plan on re-bedding the block and base.  I do not want any water getting in and sitting between these two pieces of wood and rotting from the inside out.

Since I had the half used tube of 5200 out I also set the thru hull for the tri-data transducer in the hole that was already prepared in the spring.  The 5200 takes 3-7 days to really set up.  The rest of the day was spent cleaning out the boat to get ready for the sanding of all the interior wood that I did not remove.  I plan on spending 2 weeks doing this before I start to varnish the interior.  I have not spent any money on the boat after my blow out last month but it is getting close to shopping time again.  More hardware.