Tom
July 27, 2007, Port Ginesta

The second phase in the companionway refurbishment project concerned the sliding hatch itself. The old varnish on the hatch was in pretty bad condition after several years of sun and salt.
First thing to do was to get the hatch removed. For that, I had to dismount the sprayhood and remove the fiberglass cover with the navigation instruments housing. As can be seen on the photograph, the sliding hatch was attached with a piece of steel cable to the back of the housing. I thoroughly cleaned the entire area of dirt and caulk and replaced the cable with a piece of strong rope and a pair of shackles in order to be able to easily remove the hatch afterwards without having to dismount the whole housing on top of it.
While the cover was removed, I had the bad luck that in that short lapse of time it started to rain a little bit and some water dripped in through the screw holes and found its way right onto my radio-mp3 player at the chart table! I was afraid the thing was lost for good as it didn't want to play any of my music anymore. Luckily, after unmounting, drying and mounting again, it miraclously revived.
Then for the refurbishment of the wood itself. Slowly, I removed all of the old varnish by means of a combination of a heat gun and a chemical paint stripper. After sanding, I managed to turn the entire hatch into clean fresh teak wood.
Next, using a small screwdriver I removed all the old, hardened black caulk separations between the planks of wood. When all the rests of caulk had been removed and the grooves were completely clean, I applied a special "Sika Primer 290DC" to them.
After the primer had dried I could then fill up the grooves with new black Sika 290DC caulk. I made sure to put on a generous amount of caulk, as once hardened it could easily be machine-sanded level with the wood. The result was perfect.
Left to do was to finish the hatch with 6 coats of marine varnish, just as I did with the frame and handles as explained in a previous post.

Comments [0] | | More

Tom
June 24, 2007, Port Olimpic, Barcelona

Last night was Midsummer Night (or Saint-John's night as it is celebrated here). Unfortunately this year the bank holiday falls on a Sunday, so we didn't have more than two days to make a sailing trip as we did last year to the Costa Brava. Hence, yesterday Moona and I sailed out form Port Ginesta towards Port Olimpic, Barcelona. We covered the 17 Nm in a little less than 4.5 hours, an average of 4 knots. There was just enough wind to maintain speed, but annoying waves set the brake on Iris from time to time.
At Port Olimpic, we could make use of the berth of my friend Eva, who had sailed out for Menorca. Thanks Eva!
We stopped by at the supermarket and bought food and drinks for this magical night's party. Three of Moona's friends joined us on Iris and we partied till late.
The next morning, with a bit of a hangover, and two extra sailors, Mahsa and Judith, we sailed back to Port Ginesta. There was much less wind than yesterday and it took us about an hour more to cover the same distance, while we even had to use the motor several times. The sun shone generously, giving us all a good tan.

Comments [0] | | More

Tom
May 14, 2007, Port Ginesta

This weekend, Moona and I took Iris out to spend the night in Sitges, only 6 Nm Southward. We left Port Ginesta on Saturday at around 11 am and in less than an hour we had reached our destination. At last some fine sailing with a splendid wind. With her clean hull, Iris reached peak speeds of 7.6 knots, something we couldn't have dreamed last summer.
We berthed in the Aiguadolē Marina in Sitges and spend the rest of the day and night there. On Sunday morning we sailed back to Port Ginesta. At the beginning there wasn't much wind at all. So we even had to motor for a while, but soon we had again a fair wind from behind. The sail back took us about an hour and a half.

Comments [0] | | More

Tom
May 6, 2007, Port Ginesta

The past two days I started the refurbishment of Iris's companionway, the varnish of which had suffered a lot under the mediterranean sun of the past three years. In the leftmost photograph one can observe this deterioration.
I started removing all the previous coats of old varnish from the teak handles, using a paint remover for wood. At the outside, where the varnish had almost vanished this was very easy (see the second photograph on the left). Inside the cabin removing the varnish was a bit more tedious. The key is to do small parts at a time. Instead of the paint remover I tried with a heat gun but soon realized this wasn't much easier. Finally a combination of both techniques resulted the most efficient: using the heat gun to soften the old varnish and let it bubble slightly, followed by a generous coat of paint remover, made the varnish come of cleanly.
After all the varnish had been removed, I sanded the whole with 120 grit paper and repaired small holes with a teak-coloured wood repair putty. The teak wood looked like new (third photograph).
Finally, I put on a first sealer coat of varnish (Titan Yate - Barniz Marino), thinned 50%. Subsequent coats will come on in the coming days. The result after this first coat can be observed in the rightmost photograph.

Updates:
May 7: I gave the companionway its second coat of varnish, thinned 20%.
May 8: third varnish coat, 10% thinned.
May 11: sanded with 220-grit + fourth coat, full-strength varnish
May 27: sanded with 280-grit + fifth coat, full-strength varnish

Comments [0] | | More

Tom
April 23, 2007, Port Ginesta

It seems as if summer has begun. Saturday I wanted to give Moona her first sailing lesson on Iris, but in view of the strong winds I decided to postpone the experience another day. So we spent the day preparing Iris for sea and sunbathing in the cockpit.
On Sunday the wind had dropped but...totally! Anyway, we took Iris out and spent a few hours floating around on the mirror-flat sea in front of the marina. As a first lesson, this probably wasn't very representative.
Today, Saint-Georges day I had the day off, and I dedicated to cleaning all the exterior teak wood and giving it a new coat of oil, something very necessary.

Comments [0] | | More