Oars - some maintenance

 

 

 The oars don't get much use but are showing some signs of wear. The nailed leather was not great, the nails would mark/rub on the gunwales and also water could get in where the nail entered and rot could set in. A better solution is to stitch a piece of leather in place.

http://www.christinedemerchant.com/leathering-oars.html

I marked the holes out on the inside surface of the leather and used a nail to make a hole, also from the inside. Using two curved needles made things easier and trying to keep the thread tight as I put in each stitch. I bought 2.5 mm thick leather and 1mm waxed thread. Some people add a shoulder to stop the oar sliding off the rowlocks. However, the leather is 12 inches long, while the previous pieces were only 7 inches long. If a shoulder is needed, then I'll look at using a "Turks Head" knot.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/leatherandstuff-shop

 

 

The ends of the oars were sanded back before a layer of West Epoxy was added and finished with a second layer of epoxy with some glass fibre tissue.

Keeping the Drips Off

The weather was just good enough so it was possible to get a couple of coats of Deks Olje D2 onto the gunwales. The mizzen support was quite easy to remove, only 4 bolts and this was stripped, before Deks D1 and 2 was used. It also gave the opportunity to clean old varnish off the deck, which had accumilated around the recess in the moulding.

During this year the varnish on the mast where the gaff jaws rubbed had worn quite badly. There didn't seem a problem at the lower two places, when the reefs are in. The varnish in the worn area was removed and an area masked off. An intial coat of West Epoxy was allowed to cure, before a second coat was added with a layer of glassfibre tissue. This was finally rubbed smooth with some fine glasspaper before several coats of Deks D2. How successful this will be, only time will tell.