When I purchased my Hallberg-Rassy 33 the wood was in awful condition. Much of the varnish was missing, and what remained was over the top of sun faded wood. One wouldn’t be able to tell from looking at the wood that it is mahogany.
This was what she looked like the very first day I saw her (February 24, 2017), before I committed to the purchase.
It took me months after the purchase to be able to begin working on her, because I still needed to finish and sell my Albin Vega! It took me until the end of June before this was done.
So fast forward to July. My southern California affairs were in order and I was aboard the new boat. After tidying up a couple loose ends on the boat, my first order of business was relocating her from Moss Landing Harbor (in Monterey, CA) to Brisbane Marina (just south of San Francisco, CA).
Once in Brisbane I set to work. And of course by “I” I mean “we”. My friend Gabriel came along and helped for a couple weeks. After I removed the portholes, he got to work with my heat gun and a scraper, removing all the old varnish off the cabintop in one very efficient day.
This was after the varnish was stripped but before sanding began. At this point Gabe had gone, so the sanding of the cabintop was left to me.
With the sanding done, it was time to varnish!
This was after the first coat. In total we did about 8 or 9. I say “we” again, because I began commissioning volunteers off a really cool website, Workaway.info
The way it works is hosts give volunteers (travelers) room/board in exchange for a few hours of work each day. It was a really fun way to meet some new people and get some invaluable help. Without the assistance of the volunteers, there’s no way I could have gotten this boat ready to go cruising in 3 months.
Since brightwork is very teachable work, I handed the rest of it off to the volunteers while I moved on to other projects. Between four of them they stripped all the rest of the varnish (the cockpit and gunwales), sanded and oiled it all. I also had them help with the occasional job that was aided by having extra hands (for instance, installing the Hydrovane). I can’t find my progress photos at the moment, but here are a couple of the result.
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6 Comments
She’s a beaut!
And of course, how could I forget the varnishing help from this guy!
Greetings Jacob:
I am still here in Brisbane, and still varnishing the GB!
How is she holding up? and how are YOU holding up?
I hope to catch up with you somewhere. Are you wintering in Mexico?
All best wishes, Alan.
Alan! Great hearing from you. I don’t think either of us will ever be done varnishing so long as we own these boats. My work is not aging so well. The port here in Ensenada is very sooty and has tarnished the oiled wood, and the varnish needs a couple fresh coats. Oh well, labor of love and all that.
I hadn’t intended to winter in Mexico but it has kinda turned out that way. My mom got really ill so I have needed to spend quite a bit of time at her place in southern California helping to look after her. I think I will leave here (California) February 27 and leave Ensenada March 7. Still have some jobs left to do, and still fighting diesel leaks on this engine!
Anywhere you want to catch up would be great. I hope to be in Cabo for a few days at the end of March/beginning of April before setting off for the long haul across the Pacific to the Marquesas.
Is that paint over a wooden deck. I have often thought of that
Hi Calvin, although I haven’t taken a core sample of the cabin top, as best I can tell it is a fiberglass shell over a wooden structure. I may be painting the mahogany cabin sides though, as I haven’t enjoyed the upkeep of varnish.