Deck prep for painting

We want to get all the power sanding done before we put the boat in the water [which happens in 7 days time] so today was a prep day for the deck.

Tim sanded the teak rubbing strip and the teak stern handrail. We have decided to varnish the 'rubbing strip' and the handrail as both are not areas that need to be non-slip and will definitely look much prettier varnished. The stern handrail looked amazing when Tim had finished so I think they will both enhance the look of the boat a lot. Tonight I must order some cellulose sanding filler as the teak is quite weathered and needs that before varnishing.

I spent the day cleaning off the areas to be painted prior to hand sanding. The main area that took a lot of time was the toe rail. When we had ground off the old treadmaster there were bits of glue/gunge everywhere and some of those little spots went high on the toe rail and then stuck fast. So I gentle scraped them off with a wood chisel. The toe rails will need hand sanding as they need painting. In fact there are a few chips that will probably need filling too.

The other thing we did was to cut the rubbish bit off the old anchor chain leaving us with about 12 metres of good chain. That we stowed in the secondary chain locker so that it will be on the boat when it is put into the water.

It was a strange sort of day - we both worked hard and the teak looks like it will be great when its varnished and the white toe rails etc look clean now, but I prefer the putting together rather than the prep/taking apart.