Sweet! We have the Commander Aristocrat’s hull cleaned to bare wood, and “Sweet!” is about what we discovered beneath all the paint.
Overall the Striptite planking is in great shape. There are no soft or black spots and no failed fasteners. Yes, we must set some of the copper nails, but are not faced with any re-planking.
One surprise, given the hull number, ORH 552832, we understood that her bottom planking and transom should be mahogany, which they are, but expected to also find mahogany topside planking, but it is white cedar for sure.
Finishing the topsides bright, as we understand this model was when it left the Penn Yan factory, means cleaning, resetting and then filling the fastener countersinks with appropriately stained putty. My guess is that we will be reaching for the TotalBoat Thixo Wood, which we can color using the same stain we will use on the topsides and transom.
As I closed in the last clip on this boat, there is nothing glamorous about stripping a hull except being done. Yeah!!!! We are done.