Winter Snow Storms - Hove to, but not Drifting

Living in the Northeast has both its blessings and its curses.  Of course we get to experience climate change at least 4 times a year, see colorful Fall foliage, and enjoy wonderful Summer sailing.  However, we do have to deal with Winter weather with all of it's bitterly cold streaks, snow storms, and power outages.  All in all, its still a great place to live and enjoy life.

BUT, Winter's many eccentricities does make a boat owner's passion a challenge to satisfy.  With the boat on the hard, one can't get away to sail for an afternoon, and the cold and snow make it very difficult to keep a steady of stream of projects going.  Our restoration of Harmony has not wavered, but has made some course corrections because of the recent winter storms.

We've turned our attention to projects we can do in the basement workshop or in the woodshop when it's too inclement to drive to the boat or too cold to warm up the boat.  Since Harmony has a forest's worth of teak both on-deck and below, we have a lot, no, A LOT of refinishing to do.

There is the stripping off the old finish, repairing split seams, and applying several coats of varnish to summarize the process.  There are roughly 30 cabinet doors, 18 drawers, 7 dorade boxes, 5 cabin doors, 3 hatches, and a number of storage boxes and assorted furniture panels to refinish.  We also have a 36 inch diameter teak wheel complete with white bungs and turned spokes.  All of these have to be refinished to bring Harmony to her former glory.

All of this has to get done now or later.  Given the impediments to getting on the boat during the recent series of storms, we began the methodical process of bringing a little "Bristol" back to our nautical home.  In the last few weeks, we tackled the ship's wheel, some of the galley drawers, and the teak companionway boards.

The wheel is a wondrous teak creation that had been become a mottled mess of old varnish and assorted other finishes.  The drawers contained a putrid poultice of paper towel linings and filthy facings.  The companionway boards featured a crazed complexion of failed varnish and mold.  After stripping away all of the old finish, we began a slow process of sanding and scraping the teak back to a silky smooth surface.

Our teak wheel taking a spin on the couch!  Well, at least the varnish is dry!

We stripped the wheel, repaired any split joints, and finished it to a luster.  While we'll cover the binnacle with a Sunbrella cover at the mooring, the wheel will get UV exposure while underway, so we wanted many layers of protection yet still be able to see the wood.

The bigger drawers are from the galley, while the little ones are from the forward head vanity - the white interior is mold and mildew resistant paint

The drawers were stripped, cleaned, and sanded.  In order to keep the insides of the drawers clean when on-board, we primed and painted them with mold and mildew resistant white paint.  This should allow us to keep the drawer contents clean and minimize the chemicals we have to use to battle the mold and mildew monsters.

Teak has some beautiful graining.  Two coats of while shellac under 5 coats of gloss varnish helps bring out the depth of the grain pattern

The beauty of teak shows through on the drawer fronts.  The finish is 2 coats of white shellac and 5 coats of gloss varnish. I'll do a posting about our recipe for interior finishing down the road, but the shellac helps seal the wood and add depth to the grain.

The Teak Drop Boards in their restored glory

We have 2 sets of companionway drop boards:  a set of 3/4 inch lexan panels for visibility and a set of teak boards for nice looks.  The teak boards were in horrible shape when we purchased Harmony.  However,  after some repair, and careful sanding, the boards came back to life.

So while the winter weather rages on, we can heave to and let the snow drift while we continue to make progress toward our goal:  launching and sailing Harmony!

Fair Winds and Following Seas!