Gaff | Replacing Screws & Refinishing

I had a number of little tasks on my snagging list, and now seemed to be a good time to get them done.

The build manual tells us to use 50mm wood screws when fastening the eyestrap on the gaff for the peak halyard, because it is heavily loaded.

That makes sense but the kit only provides us with 25mm screws, which clearly won't suffice. But I had used them anyway.

So I purchased some bigger screws and refitted the eyestrap. Here it is.

I found that covering the screw threads with clear sealant both lubricates the screws and creates their own seal at the same time.

The other job was refinishing the varnish where I touched it up after planeing a flat surface for the sail track and plugging screw holes where I had fitted the eyestrap at the wrong end of the gaff.

I wet sanded from P400 through to P2500 grit and finished with P5000 to P11000 polishing compound. Like this.

You can see by the low afternoon sun streaming through the doorway that autumn is here and I am running out of time to finish fitting out.

I really need that boat cover too!

And that's the gaff ready to install.