Sanding, Sanding (to the tune of sailing, sailing)

So, the sanders have come out, and it's time to see what can be done with the daggerboard and rudder for the Sunfish sailboat. If you remember from the last blog, all of the wood pieces for the boat have seen better days. They've been left in the sun, and they don't like that one bit! So, I took the daggerboard and rudder apart, and started the process of making them beautiful.

Here's what the 'board looked like after sanding it down to the non-faded/non-varnished wood. It looks much better doesn't it? The 'board itself is in pretty good shape. There are a few cracks down at the bottom of it (right side in the picture) but they were very small, and actually expected in a 'board that hasn't been refinished in forever. Hopefully the spar varnish that is put on the 'board will help with those cracks.

There was a bit of a surprise when I took apart the rudder however. The rudder "cheeks," which is what connects the rudder to the boat, were hiding an unfortunate problem. There was a large crack in the rudder. Believe it or not, I'm actually not a stranger to cracked rudders. Both of the boats at Camp Omega had rudders that cracked in half when I was working there. It's not the best situation when that happens, because the boat is obviously difficult to steer without a rudder (what? impossible you say?) and the other problem is that the rudders are expensive to replace (see the earlier comment in this blog about the pieces being made of mahogany.) Luckily this crack has not traveled all the way down the rudder, so I am going to try to use some wood glue on it, clamp it together, and see if that will hold it for a while.

The next step is spar varnish on everything that has been sanded. The minimum recommendation is 3 coats with at least 12 hours between coats, so it might be a little bit of time before this part of the project is done. It's taking a while, but this boat is really starting to shape up.

That's it for now,
See you on the water, and at Camp!
Mac