Apropos’ bowsprit measures 14′ in length, and is 8.5″ by 8.5″ at its largest cross-section. It’s by far the biggest piece of wood on the boat, most likely made of Apitong, a very strong/dense hardwood grown in Southeast Asia.

Like most projects, this one started out small. Something I could do in a day or two, but grew into something much bigger. I was only going to touch-up the bowsprit tip–a 16″-long section forward of the cranse-iron where the bowsprit is rounded. There were a few dings and dents from 16 years of docking at marinas, fuel stations, and ramming noisy power boats (kidding!).

But then I started looking at the rest of the bowsprit and realized the entire thing could use refinishing. After all, it would be a waste to buy material (epoxy, primer, paint) for just repairing such a small area. A section along the bottom where the two anchors rest had some large gouges caused from up-anchoring and also from the chain scraping when the boat swings while anchored in windy conditions. There were small pieces of Starboard (UHMW ultra high molecular weight polyethylene) at the rest points of the stowed anchors, but their size and placement were not enough to protect the wood.

At the far aft end on the bowsprit, there was some wear and tear just from normal use (standing on it, dropping things, etc).

There was one more thing that needed some attention–the large piece of teak that is bolted to the top of the bowsprit had cracked a few years ago. This plank is 7′ long, 8.25″ wide and 1.25″ thick. Replacing it would cost a few hundred dollars just for the teak and a few hundred more to have it milled to proper thickness and cut. So before I sink $500 into a new teak plank, I thought I would try to repair it first. Removing it was no easy task–it’s held in place with 5 foot-long thru-bolts to the bowsprit. Also, removing the plank gave me full access to the top of the bowsprit for painting.

So the task grew in scope and or course in time, but I’m glad I did it. Here are the steps I took in completing the bowsprit refinishing:

• sanded the entire bowsprit with 80 grit paper followed by 220 grit.
• used thickened epoxy (West Systems 610) to fill in all the scrapes and gouges, sanded and repeated where needed.
• applied 2 coats of Interlux Pre-Kote primer, sanding between coats and after 2nd coat.
• applied 3 coats of thinned Interlux Brightsides polyurethane, lightly sanding with 320 between coats.
• used thickened epoxy (West Systems 610) to repair teak plank. Clamped tightly for 24 hours, sanded, and applied Semco teak sealer.
• made new protection pads from UHMW polyethylene, rounded the edges with 1/4″ router bit, drilled and countersunk holes to attach with ss screws to the bowsprit.
• cleaned, polished, and sealed the bronze star at the end of the bowsprit.
• cleaned up the stainless steel frame that the bowsprit is attached to.

After owning a boat for a long time (16 years in my case), I find myself repeating certain tasks. A lot of this cannot be avoided (bottom paint, hull polishing, oil changes, etc). But there are some things I do because I like the outcome–like keeping the teak brightwork nice, keeping the bronze ports and pedestal shiny–so I’m always looking for ways to increase the time between when something needs to be re-done. For example, I switched from using varnish to using Awlwood Clear on all the brightwork and can now go 2-3 years between refresher coats.

I discovered another product that helps save time by keeping polished metal from oxidation–ProtectaClear by Everbrite. I mostly use this for interior bronze and brass, but am also experimenting with a few exterior items.

Interior Bronze and Brass

Apropos has a lot of interior bronze and brass. Today when you buy a brass fixture, it usually comes with a coating to protect it from oxidation (it also likely to be only brass coated vs solid brass). When Apropos was built in 1982, all of the bronze/brass was very high quality and didn’t have any protection layer to keep it from oxidizing. The sink faucet and hand pump in the head are the originals, made of heavy bronze. Being in a wet area, they tend to oxidize quickly so I would typically hand polish them once or twice a year to make them shiny again. But this takes an hour and only lasts a few weeks before becoming dull and eventually green again. So I recently gave them an extra good polishing using a dremel tool and polishing compound, then applied 4 layers of ProtectaClear. In the galley, the sink faucet is not original, so it has a protective film (lacquer?) that keeps it shiny, but next to it, the hand pump, water tank vents, and water maker port are all bare bronze, so I polished and coated them as well. I also polished and coated 2 oil brass oil lamps that are gimbal-mounted to bulkheads. I’ll use these items as test cases to see how well they look after a year, then decide if I want to do more interior bronze/brass items. Another nice thing about ProtectaClear is that is bonds to itself and only takes minutes to apply with a foam brush. Re-coats can be done after an hour.

Exterior Bronze and Brass

The main exterior items I used the ProtectaClear on are small brass hardware latches and hinges found on all my deck boxes, helm seat, and cabin hatch doors. These are also protected by canvas covers so I think the coating will hold up well. As an experiment, I also polished and coated 3 bronze deck prism rings and the bowsprit star. These are all exposed to the elements (rain, salt water, UV) and the deck prisms are also stepped on. I applied 4 coats and will see how they look after a season.

After refinishing the boom gallows (refresher coats of Awlwood Clear and polished bronze), I decided to make a cover for it. It’s a 3-panel Sunbrella cover with chafe-guard on the inside and some leather sewn into the center where the boom rests. I used 5 twist-locks along the bottom. This should keep the brightwork looking good and increase the time between refresher coats.

I added a heat-transfer vinyl (HTV) graphic to the new sail cover. This is the same font used on the hull, but I replace the brown outline with white since it’s against a dark green background.

An unusually dry April in Seattle (driest on record) allowed me to get some brightwork refinishing in. There are only a few items remaining on Apropos that haven’t been stripped down to bare wood and re-finished with Awlwood MA Clear–2 deck boxes, the helm seat, and 4 grab-rails.

I started with the deck boxes. The propane box hadn’t been removed from the deck in over 16 years and was difficult to remove because besides the 4 screws holding it to the deck, there was also what I believe to be 3M 5200 permanent adhesive applied to the 2 teak mounting brackets. I eventually worked it free but had to repair some damage to the plywood bottom of the box using a wood repair product. After removing the lids and hardware from the boxes, I stripped the old varnish with a chemical peeler then scraped, then re-applied more chemical peeler and scraped, then sanded. I decided to try this method instead of the heat gun/scraping method I used on all the other brightwork and it worked well, but I don’t think it saved any time because there was a lot of scraping needed to remove many layers of varnish.

After all the old varnish was removed, I sanded with 120 grit followed by 320 grit, applied the Awlwood Primer, then 8 coats of Awlwood Clear. I cleaned up all the brass and bronze hardware and also sealed them with a clear lacquer before remounting.

There are 4 grab-rails on the coachtop roof. Normally covered with canvas, they came back from the South Pacific trip with sun damage mainly to the bottoms where the canvas doesn’t quite cover. I knew these would require a lot of work to strip the old varnish off because of all the rounded surfaces, so I decided to tackle 2 of them initially. Here are the results:

I replaced the incandescent bulbs inside all the overhead dome lights with LEDs many years ago. I also use LEDs in the courtesy lights along the floor throughout the cabin, brass reading lights, and inside most of the wardrobe closets. Most of these LED lights were bought 10 years ago and none have needed to be replaced so far, making their extra cost well worth it.

I’ve been wanting to increase the lighting in the main cabin and decided on LED strip lighting. Through reading articles and reviews on the many different types and brands of LED strip lighting, I came up with the following list of features:

Color-RGBW stands for red, green, blue, white. This type has a RGB “cluster”, which are 3 closely-spaced LEDs that can produce millions of colors by varying the duty-cycle of each of the red, green, and blue LED individually, plus a separate white LED that can produce a warm white. In the strips that I ended up buying, the colored LEDs can be controlled separately from the white LEDs. Some LED strips are sold as RGB only, so the white is made by combining the red-green-blue and is not a true white (and definitely not a warm white).

Dimmable–most LED strips are dimmable. The ones that I bought have separate dimming for the colored LEDs and the white LEDs.

Remote controlled–I discovered there are many ways to control the strips–physical switch, remote control, phone app, and even Alexa control. I decided on a remote control.

DC Powered–Most kits I looked at were AC powered. Since I want to connect them to 12V, I made a DC adapter that powers the LED strips through a standard DC outlet. This gives me the option of powering them with AC or DC.

Misc.–Most LED strips are sold in 16′ rolls. Some are encased in a silicone sleeve to make them water resistant, a good idea for boat applications even they will be “indoors”.

Connectability–Not all LED strips have a connector on both ends, so running 2 strips in series is not possible (sell my first attempt below).

Layout on Boat-

I wanted the LED strips not only for adding brighter lights to the main cabin, but also for adding colored and dimmed accent lighting. I also wanted the strips on port and starboard sides to be hidden from view as much as possible. As it turned out, a 16 foot long strip was just about the exact length from galley to forward bulkhead on port side, and nav station to bulkhead on starboard side. The main layout problem was to figure out how to run both LED strips with a single controller and where to place the controller.

First Attempt: I ordered an LED set that contained 2 16′ RGBW strips, a controller with on/off switch and function control (brightness, color, mode). It was Alexa controllable (though that’s not a feature I would use on the boat) and came with a smart phone app for remote control. The controller output had a Y-connector that both strips were meant to plug into. This required me to modify the wiring by adding 12 feet of 4 strand wire to one of the legs to allow one of the strips to cross over from port to starboard along the cabin top. After soldering and heat shrinking both ends of the 12′ long 20 gauge wires, I discovered that the LED’s in the strip that the wire was added did not match the color or intensity of the LEDs in the other strip, probably due to the added resistance. I determined these would not work for the boat, so I removed the 12′ extension to get them back to the original lengths and found another use for them–my daughter’s bedroom!

Second Attempt: I researched and found another LED set that I thought would work better. It also contained 2 16′ long RGBW strips, a controller, and a remote. The main difference is that these strips had connectors on both ends and had a 5-wire bus vs a 4-wire bus. The reviews said that 2 16′ strips could be run in series. They also sold connector wire in 6′ lengths with pin connectors that matched the LED strips. This would allow me to run 1 strand on the starboard side, then add 12′ of extension wire in order to reach the beginning of the second strand on the port side. The 12′ extension did not affect the color or brightness of the second strip. Installing them was easy with the 3M tape attached to the under-side of the strips. I ran them along the back side of the wood trim so they are not visible. The remote works from anywhere in the main cabin. Here’s a link to these LEDs:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JZKF2ZO/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s03?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Winter in Seattle is a good time for tackling interior boat projects. I’ve always kept Apropos’ bronze exterior ports polished, but it’s been over 10 years since I polished the interior-side of the port openings. Apropos has a total of 14 openable ports–8 oval ports, 4 small 7″ round ports, 1 large 13″ round port and 1 rectangular port. Some had a nice patina color, but most showed signs of salt water that had come in contact with the bronze, resulting in green or white corrosion markings. So over the course of a few months, I removed each port along with the 2 thumbscrew/latches, and brought the pieces home to work on bringing them back to shiny using a dremel tool, some chemicals, scotch-brite pads, and a polishing compound. The outer frames could be removed but I decided it was easier to just polish them in place. Some of the pins holding the port to the frames were difficult to remove, but letting them soak overnight with an anti-corrosion spray did the trick.

Once the interior side of ports are polished, it’s easy to keep them that way with a quick hand-application of Flitz polishing compound once or twice a year.

Here are a few before and after shots.

Some other brass items I polished were a couple of reading lamps and a clock. The clock is mounted in the v-berth and had stopped working a few years ago due to a broken quartz movement, so I was going to toss it. The new ones I looked at were over $100 and had light-weight molded brass surrounds, not cast like what I had. I also liked the nautical face and the bevel around the outer edge of the glass, so I thought it was worth repairing. I ordered a new 4″ quartz movement for under $10 and adapted it to my clock, then polished it up and it looks (and runs) like new.

Another one of my winter projects was to refinish the steering quadrant, which was starting to show signs of rust from years of exposure to the marine environment.  Even though the lazarette is a relatively dry space, the effects of humidity and wet ocean passages takes its toll on all metal parts.  The 2 halves of the quadrant were easily removed in less than an hour.  I decided to have them powder coated by Seattle Powder Coating–they are only 2 miles from the marina and I was pleased with their service and quality of work when I had 4 wheels powder coated there recently.  While the parts were off the boat, I took some time to tidy up the lazarette by vacuuming and cleaning it with a bilge cleaner then spraying it down with a hose.  I also stripped the worn paint from the metal quadrant base and re-painted it with a primer and 2 coats of enamel paint.  I replaced all 4 stainless steel clamps on the rubber lip (where the rudder post exits the hull) since the old ones were also showing signs of rust.  I used the heavier duty ss clamps that have a bolt and locknut for tightening.  In the process, I discovered a zerc fitting, so I shot some grease into it and will be interesting to see if the steering becomes any easier.  Finally, I inspected the wire cable and fittings and all looked good.  When re-assembling, I shortened both ends of the wire cable to get a bigger adjustment range with the ring bolt and with proper tensioning, it removed the small amount of play that used to be in the steering system.  These parts (cable, chain, quadrant, fittings) are some of the most critical on a sailboat, but often don’t get much attention because they are out of sight.  I’ve been guilty of not inspecting them often enough so will try to start doing so at least once a year.

Here are some pictures of the project….

Quandrant before:

Quadrant installed after powder coat:

Rudder post base before:

Rudder post base after painting:

New SS clamps:

I also had the 5 dorades powder coated white on the insides (they were previously painted red).  Then I polished the outside stainless steel, so they came out pretty nice.

Before:

After:

While I was in the painting mood, I removed 3 aluminum cleats from the boom that needed some attention.  I had them sandblasted then I sprayed them with 3 coats of satin enamel.  At first I was going to just buy new cleats, but couldn’t find any the same size with the exact hole spacing.  Ones that were close in size were selling for around $75 each, making $10 in paint to restore 3 of them a bargain!