Bright work

[Ivo]

I use Sikkens Cetol as well.  Just finished applying second round after neglecting it for 3 years and exposing it to the Florida sun 24-7-365.  I could have gotten away with applying an additional maintenance coat if I had simply applied it before last summer.   Friends with varnished surfaces on their boats seem to be refinishing much more often. 

It sands off more easily than varnish when necessary and is easy to apply.  The old and new teak surfaces all looked good together after using the Cetol natural. 

My only difficulty has been seepage under the blue tape.  I now remove the tape after each coat to make sure I can wipe away any Cetol that has gotten underneath.  When I used it the first time around, I applied 2 coats one weekend, and the 3rd coat the next.  The seepage was DIFFICULT to remove after 1 week, but very easy if taken care of right away.

[jb]

have used Cetol for many years with several boats and have been very satisfied.

after stripping the wood on the most recent boat ( C16), even with minimal teak, decided to go with the  oil and cleaner route.....have also been very satisfied !

j

[capt_nemo]

HeaveToo,

With your Sunbrella Covers you've provided proof of what I strongly believe when it comes to SOMEHOW protecting Teak from the ravages of UV and weather damage- WHERE THERE IS A WILL - THERE IS A WAY!

capt_nemo

[archimedes]

I'm surprised that no one has developed a substitute for teak that would be less maintenance but still look good.

[relamb]

At the chicago boat show, I passed by the booth for this fake teak decking
http://www.plasdeck.com/
Not sure what the material was, but there was also a couple of pieces of fake teak handrail.
I briefly picked it up, it looked like it was similar to the plastic deck lumber they sell at Home Depot.
..but I wasn't that curious about fake wood, so I didn't really check it out.

[Craig]

The teak conundrum! If you can protect it with tarps,covers, etc ANY coating will last a long time. Unfortunately most of us can't afford to have custom covers made for a boat that resides in a slip or on a mooring. Even so, it is hard to cover everything and a pain to remove,store and re-cover. For those of us who live in more tropical climes, the problem is even more acute. ANY "hard" coating WILL peel and flake(Murphy's Law, corollary 157). What to do? Oil must be scrubbed and re-oiled frequently. It is essentially a dirt magnet and fertilizer for mold/mildew . The old timers just used saltwater and holystones(constantly!) to keep the teak a weathered white. Most of us want a little richer look and un- sealed teak turns black in short order in the marine environment. Enter Semco. Easy to apply, easy to clean up(even after it has dried) and easy to re-apply. Not as pretty as varnish or Cetol though. It all boils down to the benefit/labor ratio. Using Semco I can keep my teak looking pretty good with a minimum of hard labor. In the immortal words of that old salt Popeye, 'Ya pays yer money,'ya takes yer choice"! I am in the process of re-coating right now and am experimenting with using a 3M green kitchen scrubee pad(sponge backed) to apply the first re-coat of Semco. It smooths the teak without over-abrading and evens out the coverage. So far so good.

[HeaveToo]

Making custom covers is pretty easy.  It also is a good skill builder to do more skilled canvas work. 

It doesn't take a fancy machine either.  You can sew V69 thread with your wife's machine. 

[capt_nemo]

That's why I make my own sails with an older Husqvarna Viking Sewing Machine - works great! My wife won't let me touch her very expensive Embroidery Machines.

This one is a Light Air Mainsail for a Sun Cat, set "flying" and made with Rip Stop Nylon.

capt_nemo

[brackish]

The teak conundrum! If you can protect it with tarps,covers, etc ANY coating will last a long time. Unfortunately most of us can't afford to have custom covers made for a boat that resides in a slip or on a mooring. Even so, it is hard to cover everything and a pain to remove,store and re-cover. For those of us who live in more tropical climes, the problem is even more acute. ANY "hard" coating WILL peel and flake(Murphy's Law, corollary 157). What to do? Oil must be scrubbed and re-oiled frequently. It is essentially a dirt magnet and fertilizer for mold/mildew . The old timers just used saltwater and holystones(constantly!) to keep the teak a weathered white. Most of us want a little richer look and un- sealed teak turns black in short order in the marine environment. Enter Semco. Easy to apply, easy to clean up(even after it has dried) and easy to re-apply. Not as pretty as varnish or Cetol though. It all boils down to the benefit/labor ratio. Using Semco I can keep my teak looking pretty good with a minimum of hard labor. In the immortal words of that old salt Popeye, 'Ya pays yer money,'ya takes yer choice"! I am in the process of re-coating right now and am experimenting with using a 3M green kitchen scrubee pad(sponge backed) to apply the first re-coat of Semco. It smooths the teak without over-abrading and evens out the coverage. So far so good.

The proverbial nail has been hit on the head.  Please post pictures when completed, I'm thinking about going the same way.

To illustrate how UV/weather affects coatings, when my boat was new ten years ago, the PO painstakingly applied the Waterlox system a highly regarded tung oil based varnish to all teak, both interior and exterior.  Every square inch of the interior is perfectly beautiful ten years later with zero maintenance.  The exterior started failing after a couple of seasons, and I moved on to Bristol Polyurethane which has been redone three times and has failed again.  

And no, life is too short to run around the boat removing and replacing custom covers every time I want to go for a sail.  Been there, done that, even got the wasp bite to prove it.  And then I've got to wash the covers every year, apply 303 guard, etc..........it never ends.

[HeaveToo]

Sheesh Brackish, washing the covers every year?  I never washed mine and they were fine in the 8 years I had the boat since I made them.  The thread is the first thing to go.

I rarely took mine off.  I sailed with the covers in place a lot of the time, except if they were a winch cover or something like that.  I had covers for the dodger windows and those were removed too. 

I would love to see Compac do stainless on the exterior instead of wood.  That would be really cool and it would look neat.  Other manufactures have done this and it lowers the maintenance on the boats on the exterior.

The short answer is that whatever you do on the outside there will always be maintenance. 

[brackish]

Sheesh Brackish, washing the covers every year?  I never washed mine and they were fine in the 8 years I had the boat since I made them.  The thread is the first thing to go.

I might suggest that you are fortunate if you keep your boat in an area where you are not subject to tree pollen, bird and spider poop, spider webs, dirt dauber nests, mold and mildew. 

I wash my sail covers, and other Sunbrella items often in place and take them off once a year to machine wash them prior to treating them with 303 fabric guard, recommended by Sunbrella to extend their life and slow down UV fading.  It works, but I don't wish to add to the load.

Pretty hard to get into the cabin if you leave the cover in place over the drop boards and I think my sliding hatch might not slide so well if I have covers over the guides.  Not much point in having hand rails if you have them covered so they can't be used, and I don't think my anchor would deploy too well if I had a cover over the teak bowsprit.  If you leave it all covered all the time why not just take it all off and plug the holes that would really solve the refinish problem?

[Craig]

Somehow I don't think stainless trim would look right on my Horizon Cat! I think the future of low maintenance lies in wood-look synthetics, at least for boats with a traditional look.

[Salty19]

Check out plasteak.com for a plastic alternative.

[rbh1515]

I ordered my Horizon Day Cat with no exterior wood except for the tiller and bow sprit.  Starboard replaces all the other wood, except for the "eyebrow" which is replaced with a stripe.  I saw the plasteak product at the Chicago boat show.  Looks like a very nice product.
Rob

[Craig]

Just got back from Kailani. Teak came out very well with Semco. Good to go for several months then I will scrub with Spray Nine and recoat when teak is dry. 3m green pads work well to get rid of  "fuzzies" and smooth the teak. Easy clean-up with alchohol and paper towels.