Clearly the best

Is traditional varnish the only brightwork option?

- Sam Llewellyn

Wood. Can’t live with it, can’t live without it either. But we are stuck with it, because the new-to-me Drascombe Lugger in front of the workshop is made of the stuff. Most of it is painted – boat enamel on the hull, deck paint on the deck, Danboline in the bilges. There is also, however, a certain amount of what was once brightwork to think about.

And there is plenty of thinking to do. The brightwork is iroko, weathered to a not unattractive dove-grey. But dove-grey does not quite cut it in the home fleet. So it was out with the orbital sander and on with the mask, the earphones, the metal music and the glasspaper of diminishing coarsenesses. And lo, there was in the land a great buzzing and clouds of dust from which emanated coughing and swearing. A day later there emerged from the cloud rails, strakes and centerboard case top surfaces clean, reddish and shining, and lo, they were good. But the weather would arrive, and they would not stay good for long. A sense of emergency screeched into the mind, pulled a handbrake turn and stood there steaming. There were options to consider.