We’ve just finished our haulout at Svendsens doing the following work:
1. Putting on 2 new coats of Petit Trinidad SR
2. Replacing the 10 year old standing rigging (including bobstay, whisker stays, and ham radio back stay insulators)
3. Replaced a corroded aluminum mast step (which was sitting on a stainless deck plate ughh)
4. Replacing some suspect blind rivets in the mast track
4. Pulling/refinishing/rebedding the bowsprit
 |
| From Click here to see the photo gallery |
The work was generally good and I have nothing but good things to say about Chris Tibbe who managed the rigging portion of the project. Like all yard projects though you have to keep a close eye on the work and manage the project because they are just too busy to keep track of all of the details. I’ve taken my boat to 3 bay area yards and the experience at Svendsens was very good. However, after every major yard project (and Svensens was no exception) I’ve had to spend at least a day fixing some things that were not done properly.
Now to the project. I spent most of my time refinishing the bowsprit. It turned out to be a big job. I had the yard pull and rebed it (12 hours) and did the rest myself (amounting to about 30 hours over 3 weekends). Fortunately it was in great shape (no rot). It took about half a day just to disassemble after the yard had removed the fully assembled bowsprit from the boat. Then I used a heat gun to strip it, sanded it clean, applied 3 coats of penetrating epoxy (epoxy thinned with acetone), put on a coat of Interlux epoxy primer, and then 2 coats of Interlux perfection 2 part polyurethane.
Now we have the boat back at Emery Cove and I’m starting the process of tuning the rig myself (I just had the yard stabilize it) armed with a Loos tension gauge and Brion Toss’ book the Riggers Apprentice. So far so good!