I returned to the shop today to complete gluing up of the toe rails, as well as complete the stripping of the mast. In my previous work session I had glued up the rub rails, running out of spring clamps and so I delayed the gluing up of the toe rails, and I also removed the standing rigging from the mast. Prior to getting back to the rails and the mast, I started the short day (Memorial Day) by water-washing the side decks - previously I filled the old jib track fastener holes with thickened epoxy. After water-washing the decks, I sanded the recently filled fastener holes and then cleaned with acetone. I came back with a fairing compound consisting of 406 colloidal silica and 410 micro-light. The next step here will be to apply a thin coat of primer to protect from UV, prior to finish primer.

With the decks taken care of, I turned to the toe rails. I purposefully ripped the toe rail length oversized: 1 and 1/4" versus the actual ~1" height dimension. I set up the planer and ran the toe sets of toe rail lengths through until I achieved just over an 1" in height. I cleaned up and stowed the planer and returned to the task of gluing up the toe rails. I first positioned the port pair, scarf to scarf, and wiped the surface clean with acetone. I then mixed a small amount of epoxy to wet out the wood surfaces, followed by an application of thickened epoxy (406 colloidal, 403 micro-fibers, and mahogany sanding dust for color). Since I had the rub rails glued up, I had a sufficient number of spring clamps to then apply to the scarf joint. I made some small adjustments in alignment and then set the port toe rail to the side to cure. I repeated the process for the starboard toe rail, and finished by cleaning up the materials and tools required for this job.

I moved out to the pole barn to continue work on the mast, having removed the standing rigging in my previous work session. Armed with screw drivers of various persuasion, including an impact driver, I set out to remove all of the mast's fittings from head to foot. I recorded the location of each fitting as I worked my way along the length of the spar. When I approached the base I tidied up and attached a messenger line to the tag end of the mainsail halyard. Moving up to the mast head, I carefully pulled the main halyard through until the messenger line revealed itself. After backing out the screws securing the masthead, I removed the messenger line and taped it off to the top of the mast. Back down at the foot of the mast, I cut the messenger line from the spool and taped it off as well. That would wrap up today's work, but great progress made.

Total Hrs: 3