The varnish on the various thwarts and locker sides has had sufficient time to harden so today I decided to put the cockpit back together again. It also means that I can work in the workshop again without having to worry about sawdust on the varnish or storing them somewhere safe. This was not a difficult task but I took it easy so as not to damage the fairly good finish I have on the wood.

The port locker side and thwart. As you can see from the reflection on the varnish on the locker side, the finish is very good.

Here is the starboard side and again the reflection shows the finish.

The new finish also highlights the much poorer quality of the original finish as seen by the bridge deck next to the thwart. I'll have to take some time to varnish the bridge deck and the locker edges and maybe even the cabin up stands. The original finish on all these, including the items just varnished, was Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer (CPES) and has done the job admirably even though the finish is not so good. Still, it was always my intention to varnish the cockpit, I just never got around to it.

I really must get myself one. A round tuit, that is.

[Edit]

It seems that I did pt some varnish on the cockpit, but only one coat. When I sanded the surface in preparation for the varnish it was a soft surface not a hard one, so it wasn't epoxy that I was sanding.

So, sanded, wiped with white spirit and varnished. Hopefully I'll get a coat per day applied so that I don't need to sand the new varnish between coats unit the penultimate coat, that is.

Covered to prevent most of the dust from getting o to the wet varnish.

And here is the Forman keeping a close eye on the proceedings.