Month: May 2018

Made from sitka for another customer at Portsmouth Victory Sailing Club, this boom is an exact copy of a broken Jon Perry boom. Split and glued back to back and end to end, this was a lovely egg shaped section to do, tapering to almost square ends to accept downhaul and gooseneck fittings. 12 coats of varnish to finish the job.

My Tutor Barnaby taught me so much about painting and varnishing in my final month of the course. I learned loads about how paint and varnish behave and achieved a finish that I never would have thought possible before. That’s not to say it’s perfect as I know it is not, however I am not about to point out my mistakes!

Two coats of primer, six coats of undercoat and two coats of gloss on the exterior. I think nine or ten coats of varnish but I will admit I lost count on the sheer, transom and thwarts. And much flatting off between coats.

Finishing the gig was such a big job that I was lucky to extend my stay at college two weeks beyond graduation. My profound thanks to everyone at IBTCP for allowing me to do this, I loved it and it was extremely satisfying to get close to completing something for real. I say ‘close’ because you may notice the stem band (and keel band too) is still missing. With impeccable timing, delivery of the bronze to do this was severely delayed, eventually arriving literally as I was saying my goodbyes with bags packed.

Maybe I’ll go back on a weekend to make and fit them eh.