Picking up steam - chainplates refinished

The final course of the Outward Bound OBX season ends this weekend.  By this time next week I will be able to devote my energies towards boat repairs full time. With today's progress on the chainplates it feels like many of the repair projects are moving along and beginning to pick up some steam.  Below is a pictorial progression of refinishing the chainplates...

Above is the worst of the damage discovered.  We made repairs to the deck fittings and stopped the leaks a couple years ago, but we never removed and refinished the forward chainplates.  Despite the rust in the initial image.  The chainplates have plenty of metal remaining.  Rather than replacing the plates we had them sandblasted to remove all the rust.

The above image is post sand blasting with primer.

And here they are as of 19:00 this evening after 3 coats of paint.

Taking up a notch in repairs - take two

Thanks to the people out there that took the time to email me about our plan for repairing the damage to C'est la Vie's mast in my August 10th post.  After digesting the additional perspectives I went to speak with Randy at Handcock & Grandsons.  Randy felt confident that welding a sleeve on the exterior of the mast at the wear point and along the base is a viable solution.  He requested a template of the mast so that he can fabricate the sleeve in his shop. The sleeve will be cut into two halves.  The halves will be welded onto the mast. I went out this afternoon and created a cardboard template.

The base of the mast is cut on an angle so the job was a bit more complicated that simply placing the cardboard on the mast and drawing an outline.  I outlined the sides and radius at the bow; then cut this section of the template away.  This allowed me to bring the template into a plane perpendicular with the mast section.  I then outlined the stern radius.  The damage - or what I've heard a few folks refer to as "aluminum rot" - along the base is evident in the image above.  This area will also receive an  external sleeve.

I plan to clean up and refinish the existing mast step.  Below are two images of the portion of the mast step that fits inside the mast.

interior progress

A frontal passage over the weekend finally ushered in some dry and dare I call 83 degrees - cooler weather.  Thus creating much improved conditions for applying Bristol Finish to some of the interior trim that we have removed in our efforts to paint lockers and replace head plumbing.   Fortunately we already have the 12X12 screen tent up the the backyard.  This provides a shady and gnat free area for finishing the wood.

We are so impressed with the ease of application, the quality results, and the endurance in the tropical sun of the Bristol Finish that we have decided to use it on interior applications.  In the past we have used a Minwax Helmsman polyurethane for the interior wood.  After four years much of the interior wood we refinished is in need of a fresh coat.  Why not bring the Bristol Finish inside if for no other reason than we only need to carry one type of wood finish for future touch ups.

I have also recently discovered the plastic pyramid paint stands.  After catching another cruiser using them in the boat yard, I found them at Lowe's.   These widgets are amazing!