Teak trim pieces

[Sue Clancy]

I just refinished all my exterior teak with Cetol - I took some pieces off and left some on and taped.  I'm happy with the results but I have one question. 

I took off the trim pieces on the aft lazarette and the piece where the cabin sliding top handle is.  These were just mounted with screws from the inside into the teak.  I spent a lot of time cleaning up whatever was used to bed these on previously.

Now I need to remount these parts and I am unclear even after searching through the site on the best way to handle these specific parts.  I understand that a different approach might be used for the handrails along the cabin top but I did not remove those.

Do I use butyl tape here?  If so, just around the screw area or along the whole piece of teak?  Or do I use something else to seal out the water from the screw holes?

Thanks

[Les Luzar]

Sue,
There are a few approaches to this issue depending on your preference and weather issues. I live in Southern California and it does not rain here much, or snow. But on pieces of teak that I will remove from time to time to varnish, I use rubber "O" rings around the screw instead of using sealant. The rubber "O" ring makes a seal around the screw hole on the aft lazarette. I did the same, using "O" rings on the teak on my sliding cabin hatch as well. I also have a dodger to protect this area. I learned this approach from another C-34 owner on my gangway and this seems to work fine for me as well. This way when I remove these pieces to re-varnish, I do not have to deal with any clean-up of any sealants. You could also put a small bead of sealant (or butyl) just along the top of the piece of wood. This should keep the rain out if that is a concern. Either way, if it were me, I would only deal with the area's where the screws attach to the wood.

[patrice]

Hi,

I was going to tell you that just butyl around the screws is enough for those trims.
But I like the idea of the O'ring, simple, and can be found at your local harware store.

[mregan]

Just did the same job this past winter except I pulled everything off.  I used some small pieces of butyl around the screws in the locations you mentioned.  I figure if any water gets behind the wood it will just run into the cockpit.  When I Cetoled, i put a few coats on the back side of all the teak so it's sealed.

[Les Luzar]

That's a good reminder to Cetol or Varnish the back of the teak as well to protect it. I did four coats of varnish on the back side of my trim pieces.