Martin King's Blog

This summer, I decided to strip the teak cockpit coaming on my 31. The varnish was just too far gone for more scratch and patch so back to bare it went. After sanding, I had a plug that looked a little weird. Since the labor to build back a varnish coating is a huge time suck, little niggling...

After having been told that you can't really steam bend kiln dried teak, I approached this project with trepidation given the recent price hikes of the material (see my previous post). I have been slowly working my way forward on my E31 with finishing out the trim, and now am doing the difficult...

I was at my favorite local wood supplier recently and could not believe what teak was now going for. It's now in exotic wood territory.

The appearance of the forward hatch on my boat was looking a bit tired. Even though the varnish gets refresher coats, I am always bummed at how quickly the gloss fades and if left alone too long, you're looking at stripping back to bare and starting over. I wanted to take the hatch off and...

Well look here, a valve return spring! Nothing like this on the Gusher 10. Side by side of the deck plates and their gators.The old style was powercoated aluminum and the new one is plastic. Sign of the times, I guess. The holes for the pump arm are identical at 3 inches, but the mounting...

"That looks like a new pump!" my wife observed as I wrestled it from the lazarette and stood up with it. "Don't judge a book by it's cover", I replied and hopped off the boat with it. The Gusher 10 had failed to prime once again, and this was to be the last time. Resisting the urge to pitch it...

As anybody who has stripped brightwork on a boat can testify, it's an awful job. Armed with a heatgun in one hand and a scraper in the other, it takes all your concentration not to burn the wood, the adjacent paint or your self while carefully trying to scrape off the dregs without leaving...