A Little Light Housework

As we have been told (over and over and over by every single person who has heard we own one), wooden boats require constant upkeep.  So between all of our journeys and the big jobs like demo'ing the interior, we're trying not to let the little things slide.  Especially in a Northwest winter, keeping on top of caulking and leaks is paramount to a healthy wooden boat.

In Poulsbo on our way to Olympia we had a layover day.  We spent that day scraping the old crumbling caulk from between the hull and rubrails and replacing it.

Trying our best to keep nasty bits out of the water.

Northern in her new spot at Swantown.  Eli took our little sailboat out of its slip and used it as a workstation for stripping and caulking the water side of the boat.

Gimbal is just the right height for painting the covering board (the top plank on the hull which abuts the decking).

Some day we will take her down to bare wood and repaint; right now we are just taking off the flaking bits and touching up.  Next up is painting around those battens with anti-rust paint.

Rough spots sanded down (the pipe on the left is the downspout from the top deck above the wheelhouse...classy).

Taping off to paint.  Somehow this photo turned blue; our boat is not blue.  It's not exactly white right now either but it's definitely not sky blue.

And after a fresh coat.  Much more presentable!  Still need to touch up that rub rail.

But on the whole a little more suited for a private marina.

Brighter!

Now if only we had time to do something about this stem.