Varnishing the Boom & Bow Sprit

Over the past couple of weeks I have been working on the final finish on both the boom and the bowsprit. I must admit that historically I have always been a bigger fan of building portion of wood working than the finishing. For whatever reason I always seem to be challenged with the final finishing process whether is runs, brush marks in the finish, or even worse - fisheyes!

My experience with the spar varnish seems to be par for the course. I ended up putting 6 coats of varnish with a fair amount of sanding in between to get the finish to be half way presentable. I came across all kinds of issues of which all boil down to one thing: You must put the correct amount of varnish onto the spar - too little and you get ugly brush marks / too much and you get runs. Good times! I also went with the semi gloss finish. In retrospect I should have gone with the gloss - I'm sure I'll have to re-finish these sometime in the future - I will take care of it then!

Boom & Bowsprit after the final coat of varnish

Next on the list is to tackle the mast pieces. Although before I finish them I will get the holes drilled and lined for both the top mast holder and the pin at the base.