Hello Jennifer: Following up as I didn't hear back from you. IMO unless you are keeping the rudder in-water for more than a week or so at a time there is no need for anything besides a good marine spar varnish (not home hardware store varnish marked 'spar varnish' but actually marine varnish made for boats). All finishes requires at minimum a yearly servicing and about every 10 years complete removal and redo. Here are some pointers on finishing/refinishing rudders - - https://m17-375.com/2019/02/15/varnishing/ - https://m17-375.com/2019/02/19/varnishing-part-2/ For seasonal refinishing, when a complete refinish isn't needed, remove the rudder hardware and clean using Interlux 333. Clean the wood before sanding so you don’t drive dirt, salt and anything else collected over the sailing season into the wood. Now sand the rudder with 220 grit sandpaper. If there is damage to the rudder finish I will sand that location with 120 and then with 220. Be sure to ‘rough up’ the entire piece with 220 to assure you get a good bond between the old and new varnish. The more old varnish removed by sanding requires more new coats of varnish to be applied. Seasonal refinishing, again a complete stripping and starting over happens about every 10 years, three coats is usually adequate. Let me know some more details, a couple of pictures would be great, and I can provide more pointers. :: Dave Scobie :: SV SWALLOW - https://sailboatsallow.wordpress.com :: Montgomery 6'8" #650 :: Truck camper - https://truckpopupcamper.wordpress.com/ :: Ramblings - https://scoobsramblings.wordpress.com/ :: former M17 owner #375 SWEET PEA - https://m17-375.com/ <http://www.m17-375.webs.com/> :: former M15 owner #288 - http://www.freewebs.com/m15-name-scred On Sat, Mar 2, 2024 at 4:17 PM Jennifer Wood < jennifer@buskersguidetotheuniverse.org> wrote:
Hi all. I'm stripping the nearly 50 year old varnish from my M17's stock rudder, and man is that varnish sturdy. I'd love to replace it with something as durable -- what would you all suggest?
There are some cracks near the bottom that were repaired with fiberglass and resin, which I plan to re-do as well.
Cheers! --Jen