Paint, Varnish, and Completing the Mast Step

July 11, 2018

After taking care of a couple to-dos, I managed to finally get to the Dhows.  This evening's tasks were some odds and ends, but we are at that point in the project where there just seems to be a lot of random, small projects.  

I began with hand-sanding the finish epoxy work I did yesterday evening on the white Dhow's db trunk.  I blended the fore and aft fillets, as well as the tabbing work port and starboard.  With this task complete, the db trunk was now ready for paint.  

Prior to painting out the db trunk I needed to get to routing out the slot in the white Dhow's mast step to accept the keyed portion of the mast.  The keyed portion of the mast was roughly 2" x 1", and I transferred those measurements to the mast step itself - using the drill marks that I made from a previous work session where in which I drilled through the mounted forward seat (on the centerline).  I used a trim router and small straight bit to carefully hollow out the shape of the mast's keyed portion. I made the cut in two passes, and then finished with some hand-sanding to fine tune the slot.  I would come back later with neat epoxy to protect the wood from future water damage.

The white Dhow is ready for paint and epoxy work, but would have to wait until a bit later in the work session.

With the paint on the white Dhow's rudder cured, I carried it back to the shop and, along with the blue Dhow's rudder, taped off the head to prepare for a coat of varnish.  I hand-sanded with 320-grit paper, vacuumed the surface and then wiped it down with a rag dampened with solvent.

With a foam brush, I completed the protect coat of varnish - essentially a cosmetic coat applied to previous applications.

I then poured a small amount of finish paint into a cup, headed back over to the white Dhow, and applied the first of a couple coats on the db trunk.  Tomorrow evening, I will likely expand my sanding a bit to include a bit of the surrounding hull surface - an attempt to use up as much of the finish paint that I have left, which is not much.

As a final task for the evening, I painted put the interior of the mast step slot with neat epoxy.  I applied a liberal amount, ensuring that none of it pooled on the bottom, and am satisfied that this coating will protect the wood during heavy use going forward.  It may be a point of maintenance seasonally, but not intensive in any way.

Total Time Today: 1.75 hrs