[Anonymous]

I am renovating a traditional 10 metre glass fibre sailing yacht that was built in Berlin circa 1970 on which the timber spars are hollow rectangular section.
I am having a real problem to remove the multiple layers of varnish from the 11 metre mast. Can you advise me as to the quickest way to achieve this laborious task?
The Boom took me about a month of 4 hours a day to strip, sand, fill and treat with a wood stain that I have decided to use. I have been about the same time now working on the mast and have not managed to strip half of it yet and as it is outside under a tent, I am concerned about the parts that are already stripped.
I am a Brit located in Poland so I could not transport it to you for renovation but hope that you might be able to offer some advice to make the job go a bit faster.
I thank you in anticipation of your helpful advice.

Regards, Michael

[Louis]

Hey Michael, the first idea that came to mind was using Owatrol Marine Strip, but I seem to remember something in the technical data about it not stripping polyurethane paints, so I’m guessing it might be the same for marine varnishes that are often made from polyurethane. Strippers can work wonders, but they’re messy and you need the right type.
Obviously, as the mast is a cylinder that rules a scraper out of the equation. What about getting a piece of hard foam and cutting it to the shape of the mast, then binding to it a low low grit sandpaper over the shape using contact adhesive or epoxy. If you use the belt sander pads, they last a longer than standard sand paper a hell of a lot longer,

If these all faile perhaps you could try the wooden boat forum –
there’s a lot of experts on that page, they will have done it for sure! https://www.facebook.com/groups/45928256385/

Hope that helps

[Author]

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