The Wilderness

This post is being written on May 11, 2023. Since early January my build has been all over the place. My keel was ready to go and my spars were all cut and sanded, ready for epoxy and varnish.

My spars were taking up the room I needed to build the hull, so I was expecting a month or so to get the spars finished and hung up out of way and then I’d be stitching.

My first coat of Schooner Gold varnish on the spars…never cured. I gave it 30 days in an 80 degree shop at 35% humidity. No joy.

Since that time I have struggled trying to figure out the problem. Talked to CLC, Interlux, you name it. Tried many things with varying degrees of success. This is the same shop I build Jimmy Skiff in and I used Schooner Gold on the interior of that boat. Zero problems. In the end, I finally tried adding some Japan Drier to the thinned varnish and poof, I get dry and hard varnish in just a few hours. Who knows.

But also during that time I did a lot of bench work that will hopefully pay off once I start building the hull.

Mainly, I worked on prepping bulkheads and floors, and I played around with various stains that I want to use on my spars and in the cabin.

Here is a smorgasbord of pictures…

Here’s a handy trick for fooling with lots of clamps at once. This can cut 18 trips to the clamp basket down to 7 trips easy. Still get your steps in.

Next

Experimenting with stains…