Good Old Boat magazine editors and her owner were good enough to allow me to post the magazine’s May article on Magnolia, the very Cheoy Lee Cadet that has graced Don Casey’s This Old Boat all these years. It’s a sad tale.

It was a warm and lazy day, so I only put in a few hours of work on the outside teak, and none at all on the cockpit locker lid. Saturdays like this are pretty active here in the marina so there are lots of people out on the docks to contend with at the same time. So, with sun block applied and wearing a swimsuit and shorts, and with feet dangling in the water for cooling, I began.

I had only a few more areas that needed filling that I’d taped off on the port side, and as I didn’t want to waste a batch of filler, I spent some time cleaning a length of seam on the starboard side to fill at the same time.

It’s not perfect and there are small voids that could still be addressed, but I could be doing this forever and still find some of those. So, with just a little shape-sanding left to do on those few portside patches this side should be ready for me to continue on to actual varnish-prep work.

I’ve already worked on this lid before. I had rebuilt both the forward-most side stile and the inboard frame edge of the lid, but now the aft-most stile has collapsed and the lid is back in the shop.

I’m absolutely stumped by this. My problem is that I used epoxy to glue the frame together two years ago. I used Resorcinol to glue the underlying ply to the teak decking strips. It won’t come apart without a fight. The frame and everything else associated with this is solid as a rock. It’s just that stile that split and subsequently took tons of water.

I’ve received some guidance from Jim, another CL owner, who suggested adding a supporting beam inside the locker opening to support the lid. So I’m thinking that for now I’ll try to salvage the broken aft stile by gluing the bejesus out of it, and then insert a brace inside the cockpit locker opening on each side, athwartship, to support the lid and any weight applied.

I started out by carefully shaping the new patch with 80 grit to bring it in line with the wood next to it.

Once it had a shape that I could work with, I taped it off and filled the voids around it.

I don’t think there’s anything I can do about the damage to the counter right now. It’s not going to affect my brightwork, and varnishing right now is my focus. There remains the seam above the patch that needs to be filled, and that will be done tomorrow.

I made a final seam sanding run along the port side toe rail and picked out a few more areas that need attention, but once those are done I can complete the sanding with 80 grit moving aft to knock down the ridges, and then begin sanding with 120 to prepare for a first coat of varnish.

And this is just the port side . . .

And, it doesn’t hurt that I have the inspiration each day of having to walk past Lizzie Whip, who is herself undergoing a new polish.

I only managed the new patch at the aft end of the toe-rail today. Work issues interfered greatly with my afternoon. I’m grateful for them though.

I had some new 3/8″ teak that I used to make the piece. It took me three tries to cut a patch that fit halfway decent. I’m not good enough to get a scarf in there, and hope that this will do. The first two attempts produced pieces that were too short. I finally got one that fit well enough, but as I was working with it, a little corner wedge on the inside taffrail fell out as well, so I needed to glue that back in at the same time. I got out my clamps and some pieces of wood to use as braces, cleaned everything off, taped off the rail and glued both pieces in. I was sure I’d lose the clamps in the river at some point, but alas they held and when I returned a little later everything was securely glued in.

I will sand it a little bit more tomorrow to shape it better, then fill around it with the wood-flour putty.

I have now finished patching everything on the port rail except the very aft-most damaged piece of rub rail. I had to replace a few bungs in the forward toe-rail today, and I did some sanding of the newly filled seam to see if it needed more filling. I found places where it did.

I measured this aft void section of rail so that I could cut a teak patch to glue in to repair the damage. Still working out the approach I’ll use.

I also spent a few hours working on tying up the remaining cables and wires in the lazarette. This is the worst task to undertake because of the body contortions it requires to get in and insert fasteners when you can often only use one arm and can only fit a small portion of the body into the opening. But there’s great relief that the lazarette is now completely clean and ready to use for storage. No pictures. Very hard to get pictures of that space.

I had a scheduled eye doctor appointment this morning and spent most of the day with pupils too dilated to work out in the sun. When I could finally do so, I went and did some more work on sealing the gap in the seam between the toe rail and the rub rail, along with some patching of damaged areas. I’m still working on the port side.

I started the day late, actually around the noon hour, because it was a bit chilly and unpredictable before this. Once at the boat I began by filling the gap in the seam along the forward-most port-side section of the toe rail and rub rail, which I had previously cleaned out and prepared late last week. I had been shopping over the weekend and had purchased a quart of wood flour at Crosscut Hardwoods, which I was now using to thicken my West Systems epoxy. There’s a definite difference in the result, and I prefer it.

I then spent the rest of the day cleaning out the gap in the seam along the remainder of the port-side toe rail. I found that I needed to address issues in a few areas along the way. At one particular joint in the rail the fastener had broken off. I removed it, drilled it out, and replaced it with a new fastener. It’s only dry-fitted at this point. I will properly bed it tomorrow and drill the hole for a new plug.

Further aft was another compromised joint in the rub rail. In this one there was a split in the wood which would require additional attention. I’m thinking epoxy patching and clamping here.

And then at the aft-most rail, the rail has been completely destroyed and I will have to scarf a patch in before I can proceed. I still can’t understand how this particular damage could have happened. There’s also much damage to the counter behind it.

After I had cleaned out all the failed bedding compound, I taped off a section and filled the aft-most area of the seam. Then I quit for the day. That’s a lot of sun.

I tried using the epoxy putty I had considered yesterday and I think this will do it. I mixed only a small batch at first to test to see how it looked.

So I mixed up a bit more of the filler and took it further, but now I need to bring more supplies over to continue on with it.

I gathered some items together today and began sanding the toe rail. I started by taping off the surrounding areas for the section I wanted to tackle today. Then I hit it with 120 grit.

I soon found that I would indeed have to start with 80 grit in order to knock down all the weathering in the teak.  It was going pretty well until I started focusing on the gap between the toe rail and the rub rail. I had addressed this gap once before, when the boat was still in the boat yard, by filling the gap with teak-tinted bedding compound. I didn’t record that process though.

But clearly the caulk hadn’t been flexible enough to adhere to the teak through thick and thin, and something new must be done. I don’t really want to varnish it as it is. In places the gap is really substantial too.

I pulled out Rebecca Wittman’s Brightwork Companion guide and began to look at my options.  I also checked to see if she had an online presence which I thought would be very nice, especially if there was a forum to ask questions. To my complete surprise I found that yes, she has a website, but that she is no longer doing brightwork. Dommage.

But I already have both of her books so I’ll just work it out for myself. I kept cleaning out the gap this afternoon as the sun grew hotter and more miserable, during which time I considered what I would do. I think I’m going to fill it with an epoxy/wood-filler putty. It will take extra time and effort, but the varnish won’t adhere to the joint properly otherwise.

My new plan of attack is to continue initial sanding with 80 grit, clean out the gap and tape it off as I proceed around the boat, fill it with a wood-flour putty, sand it all again with 120, then apply a wet-sanded tung-oil sealer in preparation for my Epifanes varnish. I’m not completely sure I’ll do the wet-sanded tung-oil sealer though. I may just use thinned varnish.

With my new list of supplies to gather, I quit for the day.