A bit of the devil, in two ways…

Wood Boats often come with wood trim. Lots of wood trim. Both inside and out. Outside we are rather tame for a woody; only the cap rails and the transom. For that I use a product called Cetol. I know purists will scoff, “It is not varnish” “It looks dirty” lots of things. And you know what, they are right. Nothing looks like varnish. But for the exterior, I am happy with Cetol – it looks OK at 20’, and is much more durable.Inside: I am a Varnish Guy.

Sanding, cleaning, varnishing, some more sanding, more varnish, repeat.

And over the past couple of weeks I have been adding fuel for those who think of Varnish as the Devil: I have been ADDING trim to the aft cabin. Here you can see a band at the roof line, plus around the aft hatch. I also have been making battens for the overheads (ceilings in a house) so that we can put some insulation into the overheads before we spend a few weeks aboard during Christmas Ships.

More Sanding, more Varnishing, Sanding, Varnish. Repeat.

Some people run from this. They look for a boat they can wash ‘like a bowl in the dishwasher’. Tupperware to me, Evil to them..

But in the end, I love wood. I love the feel of it, and look of it. Wish I was a better craftsman - we are kind of going for the Shaker style on Viking star J

Today I put on the 2^nd coat. Have had the Diesel stove going for several days to make everything nice and warm. I will get one, maybe two more coats on before Kristi and I leave for a week to see her Sister in Colorado Springs. What I do not finish before we leave I will have to finish when we get back. Five coats is the goal for me…

The other Devil I have been attaching is truly the Devil. Here you can see the where the outside decks meet the hull of the boat. That joint, or seam is known as the ‘Devils Seam’. I can only guess why, suspect it is because it is rather hard to keep instact as there is a lot of stress at that point, and hence a lot of movement. This is one of the last Big Projects on Viking Star, I need to clean them all out and re caulk them. Hopefully before we start taking Viking Star out into the rain for Christmas Ships. Not sure I will make it for all of them, but oh well. Just keep working on those Devils a little at a time I guess!

Also got the propane locker vent line in place. So, will be able to finish up the Propane locker and perhaps get the cook top installed.

And clean up the boat a bit – before Kristi reminds me of the Devil she seems to always be fighting. . . .