Staining

Beautiful weather - warm and sunny. Only half day in boatyard today.

I finalised cleaning plank seams - Glypto got all kind of stuff between planks during her long life: original bedding compound (now dry and brittle), silicone, Ettan and what not.
All is away now, ready for fresh bedding. Seeing this variety of materials - especially damned silicon - made me change plans. Originally I planned to use Sikaflex (polysulfide bedding/glue) to seal seams but now I know it will not work. Due to silicone rests on the wood Sika will not adhere properly and seal will fail with time.

I will use traditional way instead and squeeze Farm into plank seams. It never hardens and should it fail in some place it is easy to re-apply without need for cleaning to bare wood again.

I sanded the whole hull with 180 grid paper, to prepare the wood for staining.

After thorough brushing the whole boat - especially open seams - from sanding dust I could finally apply mahogany stain.

It’s always a joy to see wood coming back to colour. I stained only the freeboard, bottom will be anyway painted with järnmönja and then covered with antifouling.

Stain application works best with a sponge - equal spread is easier to accomplish and work goes very fast. Chemistry is, however, pretty nasty - it melted nylon gloves after 15 minutes, luckily I have plenty spares.

I’ve left the boat to cure before I continue with oiling. Besides - the daylight was already fading and it was time to head home.