Newbie Wooden Yacht Ownership & Mast Restoration

[Flipper687el]

Hi all,

I recently became a first time pleased as punch wooden yacht owner of a Claude Whisstock Deben 4 tonner built in 1939. She is sound and has been previously maintained fairly well. However she is in need of some TLC.

I have brought the mast, boom and gaff home over the weekend for strip down and tender loving care as a starting point.

I have read numerous forums and books over the years in my search for my first wooden yacht project on varnishes etc and spoken with a few shipwrights over the last few weeks and a common recommendation for the mast restoration coating was to use Sikkens Cetol HLS + for the base coat & Sikkens Cetol Filter 7 plus for the topcoats.

Some American cousins suggested Sikkens Cetol Marine but this is a US only product after sending a query to Sikkens direct.

One of the reasons for looking at using Sikkens HLS + & Filter 7 + was the different stain options. The mast age is unknown for certain but it could well be the original as I have found 1939 scratched into the wood under the existing varnish on the heel/but, there are patches on the mast where the previous varnish has peeled and flaked away with the resulting exposed timber grey aging.

From my close examination of the mast since getting it home, I cannot find any signs of splitting, softness or rot. But as a newbie I would welcome any advice guidance on the best products to use to get the best results for restoring the mast.

I would like to try and maintain a traditional cosmetic classic look for the mast top section past the spreaders being painted a gloss white. However I would like to basecoat the whole mast in a common product.

I have spoken with Sikkens today and they suggested as Cetol HLS+ is solvent based as long as the white gloss paint is RUBBOL solvent based. Then there should not be any issues applying to a HLS+ base coat.

Any advice opinions on wooden mast restoration and products regarding coatings varnishes greatly received and appreciated.

As I said at the beginning this is my first venture into the wooden yacht ownership world, and I am looking forward to the long hours, days, months of work and care to bring her back to her glory

For me the journey is as important as the sailing.

Dan

 

[DoubleEnder]

I did mine the old fashioned hard way. Completely removed all the old varnish. Removed all the fittings. Sanded, did a little bit of oxalic acid treatment in places where necessary then built up new varnish. This was Epifanes gloss one part, thinned for the first coats, in the usual way. The trick is to get a good few coats on. I removed the rig every two years for a good going over and to add more coats. The advantage of this simple system is that patch and spot repairs are very easy. This is a job to do indoors.

 

[Tranona]

You are on the right lines. with the exception of the white topmast that is exactly what I used on the last mast I did. I had owned it since 1980 and prior about 2003 I used a variety of products mostly traditional and unsatisfactory so I changed to Sikkens Novatec/top which was cosmetically poor but needed only one recoating before I laid the boat up in 2010. The mast was left outdoors in a rack and about 2/3 of the coating was still sound in 2019 when I recommissioned the boat.

Stripped it down (al 34' of lovely Douglas Fir dating from 1963) and use HLS/Filter 7 Photos show the outcome. Don't know how it stood up as I sold the boat, but I used the same on the barge boards of my house the same year and they still look like new.

Photos attached

Good luck with the boat. Very rewarding if you have the time, but the secret with wooden boats is to get them up to scratch and keep on top of maintenance.

 

[winch2]

Will be doing our Crabbers mast this winter. Did the other spars earlier this year. Whatever you do the most important 'trick' of the whole shebang is for the first coat to be thin... real thin.. it has to soak into the wood which will then allow the first thick coat to 'bite'.
When we stated stripping our mast I couldnt beleive it, the varnish kinda sheeted off, it wasnt stuck at all, all because the factory had skipped the 'thin' part. Poor show really.

 

[Wansworth]

Will be doing our Crabbers mast this winter. Did the other spars earlier this year. Whatever you do the most important 'trick' of the whole shebang is for the first coat to be thin... real thin.. it has to soak into the wood which will then allow the first thick coat to 'bite'.
When we stated stripping our mast I couldnt beleive it, the varnish kinda sheeted off, it wasnt stuck at all, all because the factory had skipped the 'thin' part. Poor show really.

Maybe even two thin coats