September 22, 2010.

This week at work I’m doing something completely different. Christy’s boss Maggie has taken on a big job and she could use more help than usual to make sure the job is completed before the weather gets too chilly.

So, I’ve been going to work everyday with Christy. The project boat is a 53 foot Fleming trawler. All the woodwork needs to be scraped, sanded MULTIPLE times and then varnished. Maggie’s expecting to put on 8 coats of varnish with the entire boat being sanded between each coat. It’s a bunch of work.

The bizarre thing about this job is that there are (8) 53 foot Flemings side by side at the same marina. These are million dollar boats.
Talk about peer pressure, or is that pier pressure. Either way, nobody wants to have the boat with the shittiest brightwork on the dock, especially here in the high rent district.

So on Monday, the 3 of us spent the day with heat guns, scraping the old finish off the wood. On Tuesday, Christy and I were still at it while Maggie started to do some sanding. By the end of the day on Wednesday we had sanded the entire boat twice with one more sanding yet to come.

Working with the girls has really opened my eyes concerning the whole brightwork thing. On the plus side is the fact that the girls work all day in their bathing suits. Covered in sawdust or sweat? No problem, just a quick blast under the hose on the dock and all things are better. Another plus is the smell, no not the girls, the wood. All day with the smell of freshly sanded wood. It’s the same smell that you encounter when you walk down the lumber aisle in Home Depot. That smell just makes me happy. Then there’s being outside in the fresh air and sunshine. I haven’t even seen the bilge in this boat and theres comfort to be had in that.

Of course, theres a few negatives as well. A pleasant day is tolerable but when it gets hot, it can be brutal. The weather determines whether you can work or not, a little rain and you probably have the day off. If you’re fond of your fingerprints, forget about it, mine are completely gone after a single day of sanding.