Removing the old varnish

To be able to scrape off all the varnish, it is necessary to remove all windows and fittings. In addition, the old sealant have to be removed from the deck joints, because both the fore and aft decks are leaking.

I was pretty anxious to see the condition of the wood under the fiberglass on the front of the wheelhouse, so I did that as the first. And it's not even bad at all - slightly damp in the corners but definitely possible to repair with a good result.

In the bottom corner of the starboard side, there is some rot, but it can be easily repaired, and once the wood is dry, I can also remove most of the dark spots. Unfortunately, I have to make new window moldings, the old ones were glued with Sikaflex so they were impossible to take off without ruining them.

I also started cleaning the joints on the foredeck. It's no wonder they were leaking, there was neither tape nor cotton in the bottom of the joints. Initially, some kind of plastic cord has been pressed between the planks but it is long gone  - I'll have to caulk it with cotton before the sealant. I will also replace a number of plugs in the teak deck - in some places, mahogany plugs have been used.

March 8, 2008:
Now I'm almost done with the scraping and sanding the port side - phew, the mahogany on the cabin sides is hard and needs to be sanded a lot to get to the nice red color. I also peeled out the patches that had been inserted right up under the cabin roof - it was not particularly well made, so I'll have to redo them. Everything is still a bit moist, especially where the wood was covered with fiberglass.

March 21, 2008:
Now I am finally done with scraping and rough sanding on the exterior, and the wheelhouse roof has been removed. There is some rot here and there, but nothing serious. I have started cleaning and sanding the interior of the wheelhouse, I won't do it all this year, only the sides and the front. It looks like the roof has sunk approx. 3.5 cm at the aft end, but since everything will be replaced anyway, this doesn't matter.