Got a new sailing dinghy
- Thread starter Davidasailor26
- Start date
AAACCKK! You varnished the oar handles. Oar handles are never varnished, so that you can keep a better grip when you feather them and so they don't slip out of your hands when they get sweaty or wet. (It happens.) The unvarnished wood also helps you to not damage your wrists by having to hold the oar tighter, to keep it from slipping. Please get out your sandpaper and take the varnish off the handles. The rubrails came out nicely.
Hmmm, that might be a good point. I had read some people saying they don’t like the feel of varnish and that it blisters more, but also some saying they didn’t mind it. Now that I read your post and googled some more I do see more saying to stick to just oil on the handles.
I guess I could leave the handles at three coats for now while I continue varnishing everything else. Then after I row it a few times to get a feel I could decide to either sand back to bare wood or add more coats.
I'm definitely with @PaulK on this one. Oar handles should not be varnished where the hands go... He summarized it in his post quite well...
dj
After several more coats of varnish (expect on the oar handles 
) I’ve moved on to getting ready to paint the hull.
First, some more sanding and scrubbing on the inside to make sure any loose paint is gone, and what’s left is reasonably smooth.
Then I flipped it over and sanded the outside a bit. There were some spider cracks in the white paint and I wanted to make sure they didn’t go into the glass before I started painting inside.
Right side up again, and a first coat of primer on the inside has been applied.
) I’ve moved on to getting ready to paint the hull.First, some more sanding and scrubbing on the inside to make sure any loose paint is gone, and what’s left is reasonably smooth.
Then I flipped it over and sanded the outside a bit. There were some spider cracks in the white paint and I wanted to make sure they didn’t go into the glass before I started painting inside.
Right side up again, and a first coat of primer on the inside has been applied.
That’s 3 coats of TotalBoat Wet Edge Largo Blue. It’s starting to look like a boat. The inside will never be perfectly smooth - too many spots where the old paint fills the fiberglass weave next to places where it came off and left the weave exposed. Removing all the old paint would’ve eaten into the weave too much, and filling the weave would defeat the weight saving purpose of leaving it rough originally. But all in all I’m happy so far. Once the seats and flotation boxes are back in place to break up the surfaces I think it will look quite respectable.
Next up will be priming and painting the outside of the hull. Then just one more coat of varnish, reassembly, and go sailing.
Getting closer. 3 coats of TotalBoat Wet Edge white for the topsides and a coat of Rustoleum antifouling for the bottom (which doesn’t really need much anti-fouling effectiveness, just something to cover the epoxy fairing compound and primer).
The first coat of Wet Edge scared me a little - it didn’t cure for over 2 days. Even the little bit that ran down the side of the can stayed tacky for a long time. Finally after about 72 hours it got hard enough to sand. The second and third coats went fine so I suspect it might have just gotten a little cold the first night. Seems like the white was more susceptible to that than the blue I used on the inside. I painted some swatches on a test board and by the next morning the blue was dry, but the white was still curing for another 8 hours. Anyway I sure was relieved when it finally did get past the tacky stage.
Tomorrow I flip it back over. Hopefully this weekend I’ll get the last coat of varnish on all the wood and get everything reassembled.
Yeah, me too! Closest I’ve been yet is laying the rig out on my lawn to make sure everything is accounted for.
What do you think, before:
Or after:
Now I just need to replace the lawn with water.
Or after:
Now I just need to replace the lawn with water.
I think the after is going to be a lot of fun! Nice work and a nice way to pass a winter. Thanks for posting.
Not sure yet. I know I can get cushioned gunwale guards, but I’m not sure how the gunwales will line up against the mothership’s transom, or if the dinghy hull will hit the bottom of the transom below the gunwales. I figure I’ll get the dinghy in the water and see how it sits against the transom, then decide whether I want guards all around or some other solution.