"Capt. Neal®" wrote in message


Dear Group,

Please allow me to express my opinion of the fanatic care and feeding of
trim wood on sailboats.

1) Those who spend time, effort and dollars on so-called 'brightwork' are
more
interested in showing than going. DSK is a good example of this
stupidity with
his bragging about all the time his wife spends on the varnishing.
Please note
that this maintenance time is down-time.

So I suppose you consider Lin and Larry Pardey to be stupid for the
continued effort they make to keep their boat in bristol condition,
including frequent brightwork refinishing? You're not fit to eat off the
bilge sole of their boat. They voyaged their earlier 24' boat farther in
one year than you claim to have sailed that 27' bargain-basement Clorox
bottle during your lifetime.

2) If the wood is functional, such as the spreaders on Joe's fine,
blue-water, steel vessel, then, by all means, do take care of this
functional wood in any
manner which preserves it the best. If you like the way several coats
of varnish
looks and don't mind the extra work then use varnish. On the other
hand, if you
are more interested in longevity and protection without the constant
work then
use a quality enamel paint to cover and seal the wood.

Terrible advice. Mahogany isn't teak, and it rots along with the best of
potentially rotting woods. If a load-bearing mahogany or spruce structure,
such as a spar or spreader or tiller, one should NOT hide it under an opaque
coating. Varnish is the ONLY answer for mahogany in order to be able to see
the condition of the wood. No finish is foolproof--wood can and will rot
underneath paint or any other coating. Go back to making love to your
rubber doll, Neal, and leave boat maintenance to those who know something
about it.

3) Teak trim on a sailboat is just that - trim. It is unnecessary and just
makes it so
you need to spend more time maintaining and less time sailing (or
motoring as in the case of DSK). Fools like Doug would rather walk up and
down a dock and criticize the brightwork on other boats and compare it to
theirs than spend time
actually using their boats for the intended purpose which is NOT a
constant, futile, never-ending cycle of brightwork maintenance. Even
allowing his wife
to do the brightwork when Doug states he would rather paint the wood
shows
he is no man.

Well, no one would ever accuse you of being even remotely interested in
having a nice looking boat. Do you paint that cedar bucket?


4) Real sailors replace all wood trim with plastic or they prepare the
wood carefully
one time and then paint it with a quality paint (or they remove it).
If the painted wood is in an area where it can wear (such as foot
traffic, line chafe, etc.), then the wood should be protected with steel.
(Joe is smarter than most of you, face it!)

So, the Pardeys aren't real sailors? Or Olin Stephens? Or L. Frances
Herreshoff? Or hundreds of others with similar credentials? How amusing
for someone with a homely plastic bleach bottle boat to be pronouncing
discredit over those whose sailing credentials are among the ultimate of the
genera.

snip


I will never spend one more dollar or one more minute of my sailing time
varnishing exterior
wood. It is a never-ending waste of time and money. People who spend
any time, whatsoever,
doing their "brightwork" are not sailors but pretenders who show off
their brightwork because they cannot show-off their sailing skills because
they don't have the time to develop any. I find people who have their
priorities all wrong like this totally boring and disgusting.
They impress me about as much as some conceited, fat fool wearing a
bunch of heavy, gold chains around his neck and they share similar
personality traits - all show and no go!
I hope this helps put things in the proper perspective.

*Perverted* is not spelled "p-r-o-p-e-r," Neal.

Max