1951 Penn Yan President Bleaching Milestone

My 1951 Penn Yan President blasted through several major milestones this week.

• With the application of the final two coats of Penn Yan Chinese Red gloss enamel, the is fully preserved below the waterline. (We sourced the Chinese Red from T.J. Amato, Penn Yan Parts and Accessories. The paint supplied by T.J. is formulated precisely as Penn Yan did, and it is an excellent paint in terms of application and drying.)

• Her transom and topsides have been stained, sealed with three coats of Smith’s Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer, and received their first 15 coats of pettit hi build varnish. (We sanded after coats 5, 8 and 12, and will sand them again with 400 grit before applying the final 5 – 10 coats.)

• Every square inch of her interior was stripped, sanded and sealed with CPES, before we applied 4 coats of Sikkens Cetol Marine (satin) to her hullsides and interior transom surfaces, and three coats of SANPACO gray bilge paint to her bilge. • After flipping her upright yesterday, we sanded her decks and covering boards fair.

• Today is bleaching day. As we shot the video, Joe and RJ had been applying bleach repeatedly and keeping her wet for almost three hours. As is our practice, we will continue applying Dalys’ stronger mixture – 3 parts B to 1 part A for the next three hours, and then we will leave her overnight.

Joe and I erred by referencing white Sikaflex seams. In fact, the seams will be filled with mahogany Sikaflex 291 LOT.

The seams will be only half filled, which enhances the seams’ contribution to the decks’ overall visual impact.

Her decks will be stained to match her topsides and transom, while her covering boards will remain blonde, as she was when she left the factory.

If all goes according to plan, We will stain her decks using Mike Mayer’s Lake Oswego Boat Company Custom Jel’d stain, which is now our standard.

We will stain the covering boards using Mike’s Chris-Craft Blonde Jel’d stain. Varnishing will commence once the stain is dry and three coats of Smith’s CPES have been applies.

Assembly cannot be that far away, but probably is… and winter will be here before then, so she will not splash until next spring. Darn!