James, I went the Epiphanes varnish route with my toe rails and although it was time consuming to apply 5 coats to the length of the boat x 2, sanding in between coats, it is a highlight of the boat and I get plenty of compliments.
When I looked at the stem fitting on Half Magic last night, it appeared that the large 4-5 countersunk phillips head bolts holding the plate in place must either thread into nuts fiberglassed into the bow or are simply lag bolts in disguise. The bolts are well forward of the anchor locker and there do not appear to be any visible nuts directly below the stem fitting that could be accessed from beneath the plate. Plus there’s evidence of some type of mastic (sealant, goop, schmear-wurst, etc.) that serves to bond and seal the fitting to the deck hull joint. Mine too appears to be painted rather than anodized or powder coated but is gray in color. There is a bit of chafe through the paint caused by aggressive chafe protection on mooring lines. Half Magic is a Rhode Island built boat, so I don’t even have the luxury of asking the designer how it may have been put together. So is your boat a “couple’s cruiser” or does it have the traditional interior layout? And what, if any, refrigeration unit do you have on your boat? Mine has the Adler Barbour Cold machine that was installed at the factory and it has a different definition of cold than I do..but that’s for another thread.. Chuck Gilchrest S/V Half Magic 1983 LF 35 Padanaram, MA > On Jul 12, 2016, at 11:24 AM, JAMES LEMESURIER via CnC-List > <[email protected]> wrote: > > Thanks Chuck - > > Nice to meet another LF 35 owner. I have the only one at our club, but there > are two LF 38s and approx 20 other C&Cs - some in the hands of the original > owners. The teak toe rails are not too big a job if they are kept up. I use > Cetol Natural Teak on them. > > I take your point about the critical nature of the bow fitting - that's why I > sought the wisdom of the list before tackling the project. > > I was able to strip the brown paint off the stanchion bases using an > environmentally friendly stripper, a triangle scraper and used a wire brush > attachment to my cordless drill to clean them, then used aluminum polish. > They actually look pretty decent. I may try the same approach to the bow > fitting if I decide to leave it in situ. > > > > ---------------
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