Tiller fixing and rail varnishing

The tiller is the steering "wheel" on Scarlette. When I opened the tiller cover -- two wood parts fell out of the case. These were the front part of the tiller.

Today, I glued those back on to the tiller with a clamp and Gorilla glue and then sanded the glue off. First time ever doing this. I'm no expert but not too bad. Needed to do this because the part that was broke is essentially the handle and it would have felt wierd if this contoured area wasn't right. There were some space left over in the front part of the tiller. See middle photo. I probably should have filled that with wood putty, but didn't have any. The last shot is the newly varnished underside. Yes it does not look pretty but it will be functional.

Then I sanded the entire tiller to varnish then hung the tiller off the stern to dry after varnishing it.

I will probably lightly sand some of the impefections and re-varnish tomorrow. It'll need six coats of varnish.

One down and five to go.

Tomorrow will power wash the boat to get it ready for sanding. Still need to find someone at the Marina that has boat jacks so I can peel the rest and get the ship ready for a barrier coat. Once that comes in.






I also varnished the middle port toe rail and the aft port toe rail. Will probably try making a tent tomorrow to cover the three remaining toe rails before varnishing.