That mast never looked so good

This past week brought a raft (get it?  A little nautical humor there) of activity both above and below the waterline. My part was rather icky and black-lung-inducing, since I was sanding and scraping the bottom (and topsides). The topsides are so much easier this year! Took Jeffie’s name off with the heat gun; now I have to order more letters.   

 

The bottom, however, is a nightmare.  I did not give it the attention it deserved last year.  So I am trying to be kind to it now. 

Got what’s called “hammered gold” paint for the wooden rub rail, which might be better than the horrid gold leaf that oxidized in 24 hours.  Hopefully this one (thank you, Rustoleum) will do better.

But above the deck we had the bleaching of the spars this weekend.  Break out the oxalic acid!  Unfortunately there are still some black spots, and the two-part bleach (or at least one that works) is nowhere to be found.  Hopefully the spots won’t be noticed much.

 

Here’s what Mr. “C. Ross” says about oxalic acid in the WoodenBoat forum in 2010:

“Oxalic acid's only function is to break down iron tannate - it does not take natural color out of wood cells, it does not break down cellular structure of wood, it does not remove pigments or stains. Two-part bleaches do, well, two things. Part one breaks open wood cells and part two destroys the coloration in the cell. They damage the cells as paladin says, but I'm not sure they go any deeper than a couple of layers of cells.”

Paul hates to have his photo taken.  But I wanted to catch him and Dane in the act, so there he is. Yes, the mast has a bit of a kink to it.  You would too, if you were that old.

He’s still quite prickly about this blog.  Airing dirty laundry and all.  He suggested, a bit snarkily, “Why don’t you write in your blog and see if anyone has any suggestions on where we can get two-part bleach?”

So all of you two (or possibly three) readers out there, let me know the right type of 2-part bleach that gets out the black stains, and do it by next week before Dane starts varnishing. Pleeeeeze!

Speaking of dirty laundry . . . a method that is being used to see if we can salvage the rotten part on the keel is supposed to be a secret, for some reason. It involves a bunch of holes being drilled, some tiny bronze brazing rods stuffed in the holes, and a lot of epoxy.  But I guess I should say no more! If it works, I’d pronounce it a genius idea.