teak care

[87compac23]

I'm sure this has been debated to death. I finally gave the exterior teak the cleaning and refinishing it was begging for. Now the decision semco or sikkens. which lasts and protects longer?
Thanks,
ralph

[Craig]

Semco is easier to apply and does not build up as do harder products like cetol. It does not give a shiny finish but more of a matte look as in unfinished teak. It is easy to recoat without sanding. Depending on climate, lasts 2-4 months. On the other hand Cetol produces a shiny or satin finish which really brings out the grain of the teak and may last 1-2 years before needing sanding/touch up. Teak does not need to be "protected". It will last for many years without any help from us. We only apply coatings for aesthetics. Ya pays yer money, yer takes your choice!

[Bob23]

As some of you guys know, I chose the painful route of varnish...many coats. And while it looked great for 4 yes thats 4 years, if I had to do it all again, (and apparently I will) I'd go with Semco or absolutely nothing. I have a friend who has never done anything other than an occasional cleaning on the exterior teak of his Norwalk Island Sharpie. It looks great..a nice silver color.
Although I love the look of super bright brightwork, I'd rather drink beer than sand varnish. Must be my age....!
Bob23

[HeaveToo]

with my previous boat I took the lesson that I learned with my Hunter 22 and made covers for every ounce of wood on the boat.  I varnished the Hunter 22's wood work.  It looked spectacular but I sold it before I had to re-do the varnish. 

When I had the Catalina I did the woodwork in Cetol.  That was a good decision but I got really tired of coating the wood every year.  I made covers for 90% of the wood and never regretted it.

I am going to figure out what woodwork method I will use but it will probably be cetol and wood covers.

[BruceW]

I saw an ad recently for West Marine teak ...treatment or some other word like that. Maybe that deserves a shot. Currently, I have a boat that has just plain old looking teak that I believe I'll leave that way. In the past, I liked Semco; put Cetol on a tiller, though, because a friend had some I could use. I'll see how that goes.

[skip1930]

I read a restoration project of a wooden sailboat in a Good Old Boat magazine.

The cabin was teak wood inside and the owner rubbed in at least 50 + applications of MINWAX paste wax. Wax on~Wax off.

Boy the wood just gleamed.

I have a very limited amount of interior and exterior teak wood that was once varnished, sanded and re-varnished. Enough of this non-sense ...

Using a heat paint stripping gun and some 3-M green scratch pads the wood was de-nuded of old varnish and is back to 'alla natural'.

I washed the wood with LYSOL Bathroom cleaner with Clorox and a soft nylon brush to de-smut and brighten the wood up a bit, and rinsed with fresh water. Dried for a few days and now ready to be waxed.

As an experiment the bow sprit teak wood was MINWAX'ed four times two seasons ago. It still looks fine. A bit grey, and a bit of a satin look. That's what I want. The grain shows up in the wood. Very 'salty looking' even in fresh water Wisconsin. Rain and dew still bead up on the bow sprit. Good enough for me.

So with positive results, I plan to MINWAX all the additional teak wood on my boat. Good stuff.

REPLY from MINWAX on facebook.

Bruce Johnson - Spokesperson - Thanks, Skip! Minwax Paste Finishing Wax is still a great finish, despite living in the shadow of polyurethanes and one-step stains and finishes. It's one of the oldest finishes and still has its place, especially when preserving a true antique. I'm glad to hear you had a good experience with it. Happy Sailing! (My boat is an 18-year-old beat-up pontoon boat, but we love it (and our dogs can't hurt it!)

skip.

[moonlight]

Bob23 - if you've got 4 years so far out of a good finish, I think I'd hurry out there with some 220, clean it up, and top coat it.  It's the new UV inhibitors that'll save you.  And if you've got such a good base, you might top coat with something catalyzed like Bristol (that'll last 4 years in the tropics) and make it the last time you have to do it in this lifetime.  And if you go that route, you could topcoat 2-3-4 coats of Bristol probably in a day ... preserving the brightwork as it is.

My first boat, an Islander 36, was varnished.  A young whippersnapper (23), I thought I could certainly keep it up.  After all, it's only one day 4x a year to sand it all (6hrs) and overcoat (2hrs).  Boy was I wrong.  Perhaps my attention span at 23 was short, or distracted by booze and boobs.  Who knows?  So I tried Semco, Cetol, Oil ... and natural teak won every time. 

So now every boat I own (7 with one more pending) that has teak (only 3 at this point) is natural.  The Islander 36 is on the hard beginning a refit; the CP 25 is happily awaiting my resumption of charters or lessons (or a new owner), and the 12' fiberglass lapstrake dinghy is also undergoing a total refit.  The rest of the fleet is an Escape Rumba, 18' canoe, 24' tri-toon (got by selling a CP 25 taking a CP23 in trade then trading that for the barge to take the kids swimming, beaching, et cetera), and a 16' Aluminum flat (picked up for $300 and a $3,000 investment later...).

But I look at wooden boats often, and my penance may be that I'll own one in the future.  I like Skip's Minwax idea, if I can just get my attention focused...

[brackish]

And if you've got such a good base, you might top coat with something catalyzed like Bristol (that'll last 4 years in the tropics) and make it the last time you have to do it in this lifetime.

Absolutely not!  Don't believe all the hype and advertising.  I'm currently using Bristol, having started with the recommended 6 coat wet on wet application on a well sealed base.
It started to break after one season and when it breaks it does it in patches all the way down to bare wood.  My boat stays out 24/7 365.  There is some evidence that covering will work as the shady side of the boat in the slip deteriorated much more slowly than the side exposed to the southwest sun.  But then anything will last when covered.  I firmly believe that covering is the only way to beat this problem. 

The hype says you can repair it and put on an annual maintenance coat and it will be fine.  However when the breaks are down to bare wood, repair is to put six coats on and fair it into the part that is still good.  Almost impossible and will end up with different tints by doing that. 

I'm about to use up all the Bristol I have and then I'm moving on.  It is absolutely beautiful when first applied, but very expensive, hard to use because of the pot life, and doesn't give the longevity that is promised.  When first done: