Another Clyde Craft

[breeblebrax]

Hi yall! I also have an old Clyde Craft that I am working on.
I have a generic question about Spar Varnish.
The boat was left out over the winter several years ago and the
varnish is flaking off the bow (deck). Is there something that will
remove the varnish without requiring me to re-stain the deck? I have been
unable to find the stain used and I hate to have a stain that does not
match the hull.

Thanks for any suggests!

Chuck

 

[breeblebrax]

 

[breeblebrax]

This is the hull detail.

 

[breeblebrax]

This is the troubled spot

 

[breeblebrax]

This is the boat in use after significant interior refurbishment

 

[breeblebrax]

There are more photos in the photo album if you are interested.

 

[Sinbad's Mom]

Beautiful boat and welcome. I'm sure you'll have lots of suggestions (and compliments) as soon as everyone gets home from work (and they are not on the water).
Glad to have you with us.

 

[breeblebrax]

Cool Thanks

Thanks

 

[Chris]

Wowzers - beautiful boat.

Thanks for sharing.

Did you use a more tradional one part marine spar varnish or did you use a two part epoxy type finish?

Traditionally, what many owners of wood boats have done, is a little clean up every year and apply a fresh coat of spar varnish to freshen things up. The more your boat is protected from the sun and elements, the less maintenance you'll have to do. For yours, a mooring cover might help to reduce the wear and tear from the sun on the deck.

When you say yours is flaking, is it right down to bare wood?

-Chris

 

[breeblebrax]

The hull is West System two part epoxy and the deck is spar varnish.
Can I apply a fresh coat of varnish over the existing coat without sanding off all of the
existing varnish?

Oh, hey thanks for replying!

 

[Chris]

The hull is West System two part epoxy and the deck is spar varnish.
Can I apply a fresh coat of varnish over the existing coat without sanding off all of the
existing varnish?

Oh, hey thanks for replying!

Well, what I would say is this...

You have two main options as I see it.

Option 1 (The nothing to lose approach) Give the existing varnish a cleaning with something like TSP and then lightly sand it to remove imperfections and cut down on the sheen of the existing spar. Then you'll obviously have to tack cloth it to remove all the dust. After that process, you would then apply another coat or two of fresh spar varnish.

The risk in this approach is usually related to getting good adhesion between the old and new coats of spar. Perhaps you could check the instructions with the spar varnish manufacturer to see what they say? Typically what they'll warn against, is the fact they can't guarantee their product will stick to existing finishes.

Also, you mentioned that some of the existing varnish is flaking. To be honest, that might be the true fly in the ointment with the scuff sand and recoat approach. The reason being, that applying new varnish might start to lift more of the exising varnish if it's un-sound and flaking. So you'll want to remove all or at least as much of the un-sound existing varnish as you can. And because you don't want to, or can't restain, you'll want to avoid sanding right through the varnish and into the stained wood as that will obviously cause color consistency problems.

I guess the bottom line with this approach is that, at the end of the day, what do you have to lose? If the varnish doesn't stick or hold up properly the only other option is option 2.

Option 2- (The by the book approach) Sand off the existing varnish getting back to bare wood, restain and revarnish. If you go this route, what I would do is make sure to get a good cover to protect the boat as much as possible. And then you'll probably want to put a coat of fresh spar varnish on every few years to keep things fresh. And you'll want to do the recoats in advance of the spar starting to fail.

Just my .02 cents.

Let us know how you ultimately make out.

-Chris

 

[breeblebrax]

Well, I will do a test section and see how it goes.

Thanks!

 

[Chris]

How badly is the current finish peeling or flaking?

-Chris

 

[breeblebrax]

There are several isolated spots the size of a quarter. They are not increasing in size and
the rest of the varnish appears to be well adhered.

 

[Chris]

There are several isolated spots the size of a quarter. They are not increasing in size and
the rest of the varnish appears to be well adhered.

Well my best guess is that you'll get decent results, if you do the proper prep work and if you apply the new spar over sound existing varnish. So getting as much of the flaking stuff off will be the challenge since you don't want to disturb the stain.

Do yourself a favour and read the new spar's instructions. It should give you pretty decent instructions on what to do and not do. I would also look to see what they recommend as far as cleaning the existing surface with. They might recommend something like TSP or alternatively, perhaps mineral spirits. If they recommend TSP, make sure you rinse it off thoroughly as TSP residue remaining on the surface can cause issues as well.

Let us know how you make out.

-Chris

 

[breeblebrax]

Will do

 

[remlinger]

Okay where to begin. The stain is not a stain. This is an aniline dye. You can tell this by the pronounced grain in the wood. Also the deck was replaced at some time. The deck should be a quarter sawn sapele mahogony and not what appears to be either douglas fir or birch on your boat. I would if possible try to strip a small section. The dye unlike a stain is or should be fully saturated into the wood and should not be affected by a stripper. Good Luck

This is the hull detail.

 

[breeblebrax]

That is some impressive diagnostic! And more information about the boat than anyone else has ever provided! How do you know the deck was replaced?
(I will try a test area with CitriStrip and see where that gets me.)

Thanks!
Chuck

 

[remlinger]

A few clues:

1. Aniline dye has to be placed on fresh wood for it to penitrate in to the wood to create the affect of the pronouced wood grain. If the wood was prefinished it would have sealed the pores of the wood and not allow it to penetrate. Even if stripped you would not be able to remove all of the finish from the pores.
2. The deck center board (painted white) should be two pieces to allow the windshield to pass through.
3. The light is in the wrong location and should be set back from the actual nose.
4. Your missing the front handle on top of the deck which is directly at the nose.

Every Clyde that I have viewed since I began my father in laws boat has these same pieces in the same location regardless of the year.
Also Clyde boats were built from quality materials, mahogony decks and hull, a combination of white oak or marine grade douglas fir for the framing, and douglas fir for the benches. Take a look at the Clyde gallery in the gallery section. I have posted all of the pictures of the reconstruction on the '46 Clyde I'm up to my elbows with.

What is the length of your boat?

That is some impressive diagnostic! And more information about the boat than anyone else has ever provided! How do you know the deck was replaced?
(I will try a test area with CitriStrip and see where that gets me.)

Thanks!
Chuck

 

[breeblebrax]

Ah. Funny story about that.

Actually we have been working on this boat on and off for some time. Here is what we did.

- We bought the boat many years ago, really just to learn about boats. It was cheap
and the motor ran so we figured what the heck.

- While we were towing it to our first outing, a tire exploded from a Semi in front of us
and slammed into the bottom of the boat. We thought nothing of it and continued
to our location then launched as normal. We got far
enough out into Sandusky Bay that by the time we noticed water at our feet, we
thought we were in trouble. First boat trip ever and we were going to sink. Weeee!
We got lucky and got it out of there without having to swim, but it was a close one.

- When we got the thing home we took a good look at the hull and noticed that
there were several fiberglass patches on the hull. All in dubious state of repair.

This was a decision point. Toss it in the fireplace or refurbish it? We did not have the
tools or knowledge to do the job. But we also didn't have a fireplace.

- Well, we knew we did not have the talent to replace major planking so we decided
to use Marine Tex to repair the holes and rotted wood around the holes. This
actually worked pretty well. When all was said in done, there was some very
significant work done with Marine Tex on the bottom of the boat, one large spot
on the side of the hull and on the transom.

Once we got going we got more brazen and fixed other stuff.

- We replaced the lights and tie downs which had been damaged prior to my ownership.

- We removed oar mounts, which the previous owner had installed

- The windshield was this ugly cobbled together thing made by the previous owner.
It was about two feet long and sat in the center. Was Plexiglas that was all
scratched up with a huge ugly wood frame. He had a coffee holder over the
Clyde Craft symbol on the console. We removed it and have been using the boat
without a windshield.

- The boat was primarily painted white when I got it. We stripped it down and
applied several coats of hunter green stain (I think it was Gelstain) also painted
the white accents with marine deck paint.

- Then we applied West System epoxy to most of the hull and repainted a small portion
of the very bottom because it was almost all patch replacements.

- Last year we built a back to the front bench and made two removable full length
vinyl cushions one for the bench and one for the back.

- We also replaced the horrible attempt at an interior floor that the previous owner
had made. It was light blue and came out in several pieces.
Ours is permanent and hinged to allow access underneath for cleaning and
maintaining the hull. Painted it hunter green.

- Somewhere along the way I received an engineering degree from the University of
Michigan and that really made me bold. Now I have used CAD/CAM to create
a new design for a two part windshield and my bench top CNC Mill to cut the
special mounting brackets. (I have one side installed and am working on the other)

- Yesterday, I created a switch panel (with 5 lighted rocker switches) out
of a raw 6 inch block of aluminum and mounted it in the console to the right of
steering wheel. The lights are now wired to it.

This was never an effort to restore a Clyde Craft, we never thought we could do that
justice. We just wanted to build a boat out of what we had that would be
comfortable for us. For the most part we walked through a lot of marinas and
tried to reproduce what we saw on other boats that we though looked nice or
useful.

BTW: 14 feet

Did I see that you are in Michigan?