Spar Coating

My spars are Sitka Spruce. When I commissioned Bruce to build the spars I decided that the mast should be the same color as the Douglas Fir staving on the hull sides down below.  So he stained the mast, then applied two coats of epoxy ahead of the varnish. The stain was a bad idea....my mistake.

Bruce mis-read the spar plans and built the mast 13 inches short.....his mistake.  A clothes pin scarf lengthened the mast back to plan but the stain and varnish on the bottom of the new lower section did not match the original coating.  "That's OK, give's it character.....memorializes the journey", my wife said.

I installed the radar antenna mounts using 3M 5200 since it would never have to be removed.  Turned out I had installed it too high on the mast foul of the headstay and it did in fact have to be removed.  The mounts took the varnish and a layer of Spruce with them..................my mistake (it was my turn).  Then the steaming light had to be pulled so it could be seen under the radar antenna.  And again the repaired area didn't match....more character.

After sanding back to bare spruce

I  decided the splotchy mast was not going to get it, so we removed all the mast furniture and stripped the spars back to bare spruce. This time we skipped the stain and went with three coats of Awlgrip's "Awlspar" varnish followed by multiple coats of their "Awlbrite Clear", a polyurethane with UV inhibitors.  This system is advertised to be much more durable and longer lasting than the equivalent varnish over epoxy.  We shall see.

First coat of Awlbrite