Braised Oak Boat Ribs

The heat gun definitely works to lift the old paint, at least on the inside where it appears it was painted over varnish.  I cranked it up to 1100 degrees F, the highest setting, and the paint first starts to blister and then gets scorched bumps on it.  After that it will lift off in limp strips.  Under the paint, the old varnish turns into a goo, and it's pretty tough to scrape very much of that off.  So another sanding step will be needed to get down to bare wood.  I noticed that where it appeared that paint was applied to weathered wood, probably without any varnish on it, the paint was sticking a whole lot more.  It will be more work to get that paint off the oak ribs.

It was getting tougher to sit inside the boat and do this stripping, and This Olde Boater was getting pretty much "stoved up" after about an hour or so of being hunched over and peering at it with my spectacles.  So I finally wedged a few split logs under one side so I could stand on the ground and work at it from there.  Much better having your work surface situated so it's literally less of a pain to work on.  Must be why surgeons don't sit on top of you when they're doing repairs in the OR.  Which reminds me, I have the intention of getting a slightly narrower scalpel for scraping between the ribs - maybe a 3/4 inch.  AND I'm going to check out getting one of those back support belts you see Olympic weight lifters and Sams Club employees use to try to minimize the "stoving" effect.

All the while of course, Frank the Zen Dog has been faithful in his job of supervising the work site.  I think he must be on contract from OSHA.  You can tell he takes his job seriously.  See, he's watching carefully and is ready at a moment's notice to man (dog) the fire hose - or pee on the fire hydrant - or try to keep his new baby brother Ralph from becoming a roasted hot dog.

Speaking of roasted, another good thing to do if you're an Olde Boater is to fire up the sauna ahead of time, knowing you'll also need to roast your bones after the Olympic braising event.  The sauna is good too for reflecting on how life imitates art, and Art imitates Life, and Zen starts with a "Z" just like Zorro, and if you really were Zorro you'd be riding a horse instead of fixing up a boat for a 20 horse outboard, or how the inboards are connected to the outboards.

Plus, after a good steamy sauna - or a dry roast if you prefer - you'll be perfectly prepared for a nap, which is perhaps the highest and best objective in all of this.

So, fire up boaters...!