Cockpit table restoration

The teak table that hinges upward from my Edson steering pedestal is made of solid teak.  Over the years it has had successive coats of varnish, but no sanding/refinishing   

As a result, the finish is very thick, but uneven.  The varnish has become quite orange.

Here is a photo of the table removed from the boat, sitting on my kitchen bench:

You can see how proud the wood grain is, and how the pores of the teak have gone black.

I started by stripping and scraping 95% of the varnish off, then spent an evening sanding the table back to a smooth surface.  I'm using plain old spar varnish, because this table resides under a cover, and a flawless finish is more important to me than durability.

I should have some "in progress" photos soon.

Update 2/12/13

Work is underway - a lot of sanding

UPDATE 13/12/13

7 coats of varnish, sanding lightly with 320grit paper between each coat.  Varying temperatures and conditions have caused me difficulty, as I have had to thin or not thin on a 'best guess' basis.  I will need 2 or 3 more perfect applications to get the result I want (10 coats total).  It is extraordinarliy-difficult to get a mirror-smooth finish...I don't know how the pros do it.

UPDATE 17/12/13

DONE!

...and that's 10 coats

...mandatory before and after...

Re-naming

I will be re-naming the boat over Christmas during haul-out.  The original name, when she was sailed in Texas, was "Effervescence", and this was changed to "Kiss Kiss" (after the Roald Dahl book).

The unstayed rig is very unique here in NZ, and I wanted to re-name her to play on this.  Here is what I have come up with:

Simpson-Lawrence SL Hyspeed Windlass Restoration

The manual windlass at the bow of my boat has always bothered me.  I never use it, but it was in bad visual condition, and being so obvious, I think it said something to the passing public...something like "this boat is in decline".

So with the brilliant weather that November brings in the Southern Hemisphere, I have decided to restore it.

For some unknown reason, I failed to take a "before" photo, so I found one on the internet that represents the condition it was in before I started:

Thank you to the owner...whoever you are...mine was actually worse, paint coming off in large flakes.

I will shortly upload an "after" picture, which will show the result of careful disassembly, stripping, sanding, priming and painting.  It has turned out very nice.


For anyone considering the same project, here is a link to the original owner's manual:

http://www.lewmar.com/%5Cassets%5Cimg%5Cdataset%5CManual-S-L%20Hyspeed-D1021-1.pdf

UPDATE 7/12/13

It's all back together, looks good. I caulked the seams after this photo was taken.