Just remove the r and that will do it. Every few months I varnish a bit of Mahdee’s brightwork. Coat after coat after coat I wonder what happens to it. For example, I have at least 20 coats on the cockpit combings but yet there are places where it has worn down to bare wood and I can say with certainty that the thickness of the existing varnish at best is the equivalent of something like 4 or 5 coats. Today, I sanded the cockpit combings and put on a coat. Tomorrow morning, I’ll achieve another coat and hopefully a third tomorrow afternoon and a fourth on Tuesday before the weather gets too cold again for good drying.
The few places I’d “spot varnished” in September on the combing were bright and shiny still; the problem was that I’d not varnished the combing at all in August when I varnished everything else on the boat. My notes say that the cockpit combing was last varnished in late April of 2010. No wonder it was pretty much gone!
We’re calling it “Vanish” since it certainly wears away to nothing.
The logistics of varnishing keep it as an illusive and seldom completed task here on the boat. I cannot varnish when it is wet, too hot or brightly sunny (the varnish will bubble) , too late in the day (dew will fall) or when David is doing any of his typical messy work. Can’t varnish when we’ll be moving the boat from one anchorage to another (that’s every three days) but yet varnishing is best done at anchor rather than at the dock (too many lines in the way when at the dock). So, a good varnish day is like getting all the stars to align–we’re at anchor, it’s not our last day at anchor (since it is best to varnish two days in a row), David has other things to do besides make dusty messes; and the weather is neither too hot, too cold, too wet, or too windy. Got it? Yep, very rare days are the varnish days.
Since I’m “ahead” of David on getting a cold, I feel better than him today and thus can go about my sanding and varnishing while he sits inside barely able to think and not in the mood for dusty projects! Perfect varnish time. The weather is great, and we’ll be here until early Tuesday morning! The stars have aligned.
