A few years ago some of the crew decided *PEGASUS* needed some sprucing up, having Awl-Gripped the topsides the previous year. Helene decided the cockpit needed a re-do the most, so the two of us spent a winter sanding, filling, fairing, repeat. This was followed by the prep for painting, vacuuming, tacking off, & masking. After spraying on the Awl-Grip, cockpit looked like new.
The following winter, another crew Gwendoline, decided we needed to re-do the area outside of the cockpit behind the cabin. First step was removing all the winches, cleats, teak coamings, traveler, and any other hardware. Luckily for me, Gwen is about 95#, and could fit into the lockers and lazarette for removing all the nuts, bolts, and screws holding everything down. With the coamings off I decided to remove the numerous coats of varnish and base layers of clear coat West System epoxy. In spite of numerous coats of varnish with UV inhibitors over the epoxy, the wood had lost it's golden glow and was turning brown. Getting the epoxy off almost beat me. Tried varnish & paint remover (didn't touch it), heat gun & scraper (removed varnish only), DA sander and 2 part teak cleaner to no avail. Almost gave up and started shopping for new teak to build coamings from scratch. The lumber would have been $1000-1500, then guessing about the same cost to have an expert cabinet maker replicate the coamings. Before going that route, I decided to ask the expert Pete at the Boat Works in NOTL. After listening to everything I tried, Pete asked if I tried a belt sander. My jaw dropped, but he replied "what have you got to loose?" It worked. Below are pics of freshly removed and finally cleaned with belt sander and 2 part teak cleaner. Finished off with 16 coats of varnish.
While refinishing the teak, we attacked the deck, toerails, and winch islands outside the cockpit. Sanded off all the old diamond nonskid with a DA sander. The toerails and smooth spots on the deck required lots of hand sanding, along with a little filling, fairing, repeat. As I don't spray paint, I opted to brush & tip the Awl Grip on the smooth parts after prepping the areas. After a few attempts, they came out almost beautiful (I'd give it a 95%). Masked off the areas to be non-skidded, rolled on gelcoat thickened with colloidal silica with a 1/4" roller, and allowed it to dry for a day or two. After cured, the gelcoat/colloidal silica had fantastic traction. A bit too much, if you fell on the deck you would probably leave about 1/2 pound of flesh on it. Sanded it down to a safe grit/traction level and brushed on some Awl-grip. Refinishing was done, so on to re-assembling. Lots of caulk to bed teak, winches, cleats, etc down. Gwen was a super trooper goddess, attaching all the nuts & washers from inside the cockpit lockers & lazarette. Could not have finished the project without her, and am forever grateful for her assistance
Could not put my hands on any close ups of the finished cockpit and aft deck. However I did find a couple shots of my beautiful assistants Helene & Gwendoline enjoying the fruits of our labor.
Found a couple shots of closer ups of the refurbished cockpit. Apologies for the crew of Gwendoline & Helene in the way.
