"katysails" wrote in message

Winter takes its' toll on varnish in a very bad way here...and Mr Sails is
a varnish fanatic...its' done as a matt4er of course rather than a matter
of need...

Don't you have some sort of cover?

Max

"DSK" wrote in message

My wife has gone from racing tactician to teak nazi. Nowadays when we walk
around looking at boats, she is as likely to criticize the brightwork as
make a comment about the rig or design.

For her birthday or next Christmas, get her a copy of Rebecca Wittman's book
"Brightwork." A nice coffee table book as well as an anal retentive
brighworker's treatise. She'd love it, if she doesn't already have it.

And one thing we agree on (actually we agree on many things) is that we
have never seen a Cetol finish that looked as good as even a half-assed
varnish finish much less a good one. You can read a newspaper in the
reflection off our brightwork, which is not half-assed IMHO.

If Maxprop's boat has decent wood on it, she deserves better.

I really enjoy properly varnished teak, but my personal experience is that
teak is simply too oily to hold varnish properly in hot summer sunlight.
Mahogany is another story, and our former Mariner 31 ketch had
lovingly-varnished mahogany brightwork.

I'm probably a bit like your wife in my approach to varnish, but I prefer
Cetol simply because it lasts, and with minimal problems. It's a compromise
between work and appearance. I honestly believe that ours is the finest,
best-equipped Sea Sprite 34 in the country (it's one of the few
factory-completed boats, for starters), but it could be nicer, if we'd take
the time to varnish all the brightwork. But we enjoy our time off (it's
precious and scarce) too much to get anal about the wood's appearance.
Cetol, in the eyes of most people who walk the dock, does not detract from
the appearance of our boat. However that really does not matter to me.
What matters is keeping the wood 'healthy' and clean in appearance. And
Cetol Marine does all that and more. And it affords us the time to sail and
enjoy our all-too-brief summer seasons. Perhaps when we retire to Oriental,
we'll reconsider varnish for the brightwork.

Max

"katysails" wrote in message

We tarp and humidity gets under there...what we have found is that there
is a direct relationship to the proximity of the wood pulp factory to
where our boat is moored and stored...Muskegon is an industrial town and I
think air pollution might explain some of it...our varnish jobs lasted
better when we were up farther north away from industry....

I never thought about that, but you are correct: the paper company's
effluent is acidic, with a pH around 4 or 5. It wreaks havoc on isenglas,
and I suspect it would be tough on varnish, too, if held against it via
condensation during the off-season months.

and yes, Max's boat is worth the effort of varnish, but hey, he likes
cetol, so who am I to complain?

I actually don't like Cetol, but it's a compromise between time spent
refinishing and time spent sailing/sunbathing/swimming/partying/et.al.

Max

"DSK" wrote in message

katysails wrote:
We tarp and humidity gets under there...

Humidity is bad, especially going through thaw/freeze cycles, but unless
there are already bubbles in the varnish, or moisture sealed in, I don't
understand how this is going to tear up the finish. I have some experience
with boats left outside through New England winters, and they usually
required touching up... sometimes major touching up... but varnish up
there lasts a lot longer than down here in my admittedly limited
experience.

I agree with you last sentence, but I think the oil in teak is the culprit
in many cases. Some "experts" claim that *drying* teak with acetone or
benzene (not) prior to varnishing is necessary to keep the oil from leaching
to the surface under the finish. A friend's Panda 34 lost its varnished
finish, despite the owners' attempt to maintain it constantly. I examined a
piece of varnish that snapped off the wood and found it to be oily on the
underside.

Max

"katysails" wrote in message

Nah...actually, his boat is one of the prettiest I've seen (don't tell him
that, though...things like that go to his head and then he becomes
unbearable...)

Kind words, Katy, and appreciated. I'll apply my head clamp at once.

Max

"DSK" wrote in message

katysails wrote:
Nah...actually, his boat is one of the prettiest I've seen (don't tell
him that, though...things like that go to his head and then he becomes
unbearable...)

Owning a pretty boat is an obligation to the public.

I've never considered it to be an obligation to anyone g, but it is most
enjoyable when people pass by the million dollar Sea Rays and Tiaras on a
dock to compliment my boat.

Max

"Capt. Neal®" wrote in message


"DSK" spewed the following crap:

Owning a pretty boat is an obligation to the public.


Typical liberal - all show and no go. Function means less than
appearances,
lies speak louder than the truth, fantasy is fact!

What has obviously escaped your notice over the years is the fact that quite
often boats of beauty are great performers as well. Conversely ugly
boats--those that have been optimized for interior volume rather than hull
design integrity--are most often terrible performers. Take the Morgan Out
Island series, as an example of the latter. And the CCA yachts of the 40s
and 50s as an example of the former. The Hinckley Bermuda 40 is still one
of the finest performing, best handling boats in existence. It still wins
handicap races, and it's drop dead gorgeous. So are the 6 Metres and
Etchells 22s. Even the latest America's Cup yachts are beautiful in design
and appearance. Dame Ellen MacArthur's B&Q, while quite modern in design,
is quite attractive.

This is not a political issue, rather one of aesthetics vs. performance,
which are not mutually exclusive by any stretch of the imagination.

Max

"Capt. Neal®" wrote in message



"katysails" wrote complementing "Cut the
Mustard" thusly:

Nah...actually, his boat is one of the prettiest I've seen (don't tell
him that, though...things like that go to his head and then he becomes
unbearable...)


Thanks, Katy!

Spoken by one whose head is hard-pressed to make it through his voluminous
companionway as it is. g

Max

"katysails" wrote in message


"Maxprop" wrote in message
Ditto. Just a coat of Awlcare on the hull and deck and splash. Okay,
maybe a little Sikkens Cetol Marine on a few choice wooden parts. Like
all of 'em. (sigh)

You can do that after launch...don't sweat it...

The brightwork, yes, but the topsides (that would be the exposed sides of
the hull above the waterline for Neal and Ganz) are difficult to do properly
from the dink.

Max

OzOne wrote in message

On Tue, 8 Mar 2005 08:13:09 -0500, "Scott Vernon"
scribbled thusly:

OzOne wrote


Not much populated areas up there, though there are a lot of small
coastal villages at risk.

Mostly just Aborigines, and who cares if a few hundred of them wash
out to sea, eh Ozzy?

SV


Great part after a storm like this is that we can send em up some
blankets...infected with smallpox ;-)

LOL. You ozzies are learning from us Americans, ain'tcha? Not one of our
prouder moments, to be sure.

Max