[Alberg30] Sitka Spruce Boom

[Gordon LACO]

Hello - 

I used to love to look after my sitka spars.... here is how we did it.

We sanded with 120 grit, and bleached black spots out with a 10% javex
bleach and water solution.  We sheathed the spars with one coat of West
Epoxy (no cloth!) sanded, then layered up 8 coats of Epifanes varnish wet
sanding with 180 between each coat (some guys use 220 but you don't have
to).  Epifanes is the clearest and seems to have the best UV survivability.

The Epoxy trick gave the varnish a hard enough underlayer to help resist
chips caused by shackles etc hitting the spar.  I used to give it a sanding
then a new layer of varnish each spring - had no trouble keeping the mast
and boom looking perfect for 11 years.  Before learning to do the above we
used to sand to bare wood, put on one coat of Minwax "clear" stain - looks
like water - then three coats of thinned varnish.  After that we layered up
eight coats of uncut varnish.  We still got dings from shackles etc and were
constantly dealing with black spots.  The epoxy treatment solved that.

Gord Laco #426 Surprise

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 |                This Old Boat by Don Casey                     |
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