[Public-List] Finishes Part Two........ oh that gorgeous New York Forty

crufone at comcast.net crufone at comcast.net
Wed Jun 2 11:03:16 PDT 2010



Me again, 



Storing boats in any climate will lead to finish deterioration.  Using a boat actively contributes to cleaning the finish on a regular basis and helping it last longer.  Dirt and grime are death to a finish, of course only next to Ultra Violet, freeze/thaw, physical bruising, etc. 



I have discovered that Epoxy coatings applied to less than the entire surface of wood trim lead to an 'edge' which causes the Epoxy to fail.  This applies to penetrating as well as surface Epoxy coatings/finishes. I would not bother to apply Epoxy to boat trim unless the trim was removed and the entire surface could be treated. 

I believe that if the boat is a working boat and not a show boat I would keep the Epoxy coating to a minimum first layer, following the Epoxy with subsequent maintenance layers of your choice assuming that they are compatible with the Epoxy beneath. This gives one a decent base layer with upper layers which can be more easily maintained. Again if one allows the deterioration to proceed to damage the base layer system then you have defeated in theory the 'easy more manageable routine maintenance of the wood trim. 



Now to one of my more orgasmic boating experiences.  I was in Newport, RI. The strong fresh varnish odor lead me to her. One could smell the varnish from a city block away.  Tied up to the docks of the Yacht Restoration School there was this magnificent New York Forty. She had just been redone some place up in Maine and was headed to the Isle of Wright for some sort of boating festival.  Do you know the shivers up and down your spine when as a kid you were afraid of the dark?  That was my reaction, in addition to almost wetting my pants. 



On a wonderfully designed wooden boat, there is nothing, absolutely nothing more breath taking than a natural resin varnish finish. I saunt ered back and forth for an hour admiring the beauty of that varnish which only served to illuminate further Herreshoff's genius. Oh......... to be one of the chosen few who could have the where-with-all to own such a craft and be in command of the 'people' to do the maintenance......................lots and lots of people. 



Michael #133 



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