Refinishing Teak / Brightwork

[Ben H.]

Hi again.

My second garage project going on right now is to restore/refinish the teak on my C34 MK1. I've brought home the companionway pieces to start with and also recently purchased a used teak cockpit grate. I don't think there was anything applied to the companionway, but the cockpit grate has some finish on it.

Through my research I'm leaning towards using Cetol to treat the wood, but see that the gloss part should not be used for decks. The tech sheet says you can add an Interlux non skid between coats. I'd again like to pick everyone's brains on restoring their boats teak and what holds up the best. The Interlux rep started telling me about an AwlGrip product they carry (part of the same BIG company). I believe it was called AwlWood and seems to be very permanent and long lasting.

What are your thoughts on restoring and finishing the teak exterior pieces? What have people used for "deck" walk/on pieces? Has anyone used the AwlGrip product? Thoughts on color (clear/natural) Cetol?

Thanks again!
Ben

[Noah]

Ben- I am a "varnish man" myself. Never used Cetol.  Lots of discussion on both Cetol and varnish on the this message board, if you search either "Cetol" or "varnish or "brightwork" etc. example: http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,7505.msg55623.html#msg55623

Not sure what you mean when you refer to "walk on teak", but wherever, (cabin sole, cockpit gate, which I don't have) gloss makes things slippery--common sense (to me anyway).  Practical Sailor has lots of comparisions/tests/ratings on wood finishes. Worth a look.

[Paulus]

Ben, I use Cetol, natural teak, on my exterior including the cockpit grate.  Very pleased with the results.  Using cetol or varnish, teak requires lots of loving care.
Paul

[Stu Jackson]

......................
........................ I'd again like to pick everyone's brains on restoring their boats teak and what holds up the best.
......................
.......................

The "natural" progression of "dealing with exterior teak" usually runs like this:

--- teak oil

or

--- Nothing

--- varnish

--- cetol

--- nothing

---teak oil or Semco

--- nothing

--- varnish

--- cetol

Repeat as necessary... :D:D

Nothing much has changed in the last 25 years about this subject...

We removed all the varnish from our boat when we bought her in 1998, replaced with cetol.  A few years ago I cleaned the cetol off the eyebrows and forward of the dodger.  Left the cetol in the cockpit.

[Noah]

teak requires lots of loving care.
Paul

Depends on how you like it. Some "sages" say on teak, particularly decks, do nothing... let them turn gray. Douche them with salt water occasionally--and don't scrub too hard, or too often, as it washes away the soft wood...not my favorite look but as I said and Stu laid-out in his "historical flow chart" --- lots of opinions, with no right answer!

[Fred Koehlmann]

Ben,

It all comes down to what you want to see and where you want to spend your energy. My dad left the exterior teak rails on his Grampian 26 plain after he got tired of maintaining it (they didn't cover their boats in the winter in those days). My engineer father-in-law didn't want to waste time on maintenance when he could be sailing, so he used a brown exterior oil paint on his rails and tiller. His fellow boaters were amuzed,  but he was always sailing before them.  We inherited the boat when he passed and left it as it was until we wanted to sell it for the C34.  Then I stripped it all and cleaned it and did the Cetol thing. Looked good,  and she sold after that. Love the C34 MkII, no exterior wood  ,other than  the companion way hatch which looks just fine after seven seasons and no work done on it. Probably because the dodger keeps the sun off it.

[DaveBMusik]

I sanded all of my cockpit wood and eyebrows down to bare wood last year and used Cetol natural. Quite pleased with the results. Don't forget to put plastic bags over your winches so the dust doesn't get inside.
I plan to redo the steps this year and think I will teak oil the steps instead of mixing in non skid with varnish and then varnish the rails. Someone here had filled the grooves of the steps with black silicone to prevent the build up of dirt.

[KWKloeber]

http://www.practical-sailor.com/issues/37_9/features/exterior_wood_10576-1.html

hmmmmm...  follow up. I just read the article.  Helmsman is one I've said  that I use and recommended  due to how well (I find) it applies, looks and has held up ..... seems those non scientific findings are founded.  JTSO,  YMMV.

[Ben H.]

Ben, I use Cetol, natural teak, on my exterior including the cockpit grate.  Very pleased with the results.

Paul, How exactly did you do the grates? Has the Cetol held up to being walked on? Pictures?

I sanded all of my cockpit wood and eyebrows down to bare wood last year and used Cetol natural. Quite pleased with the results.

Dave, Do you have any pictures of the final product?

Thanks everyone for the comments.

[crieders]

 One of the nice things about Cetol which no one has yet mentioned, is that you do touch up work for a couple of years as needed. For some reason, I find the eyebrows are the hardest to keep up with.

[KWKloeber]

 Cliff

Definitely a plus for Cetol.  And it definitely holds up (If you don't mind "painting" your teak and completely change the look.)

Why maintain the eyebrows if it's an issue, some have just eliminated them.  Ditto on the C 30 brethren   

KK

[Ted Pounds]

Here's an alternative:  https://www.plasteak.com/?gclid=CMnel_eV1NICFU0lgQodMvcKdA
I used this to replace the handrails and add toerails to my Gloucester 19.  It's not quite as nice as newly varnished teak, but it requires ZERO maintenance and after a few months in the weather it looks good as new which you can't say about teak.

[Ted Pounds]

Here's a pic with the PlasTeak:

[Sue Clancy]

I'm a fan of Cetol and have used it on both our Catalina 25 and 34.  Once you get through the initial year where you sand/clean everything and put on 3 coats, then annually I just do a light sanding and a single coat.  I can do the whole boat's exterior teak in a few hours.  I don't remove much, just tape and reapply.  I think it looks pretty good with the Cetol Natural color.   We sail in the same area as Ben (Southern CT / LI Sound) and haul our boat every year.  We also have a full length cover for the winter which helps a lot in keeping the teak looking good.  I would also recommend covering the grab rails if you can sew or purchase the covers.  That part takes the longest and you can skip a few years on recoating those if you keep them covered when not sailing.  One thing I liked about Cetol was that you don't sand between coats as long as you only wait 24 hours between coats.  Makes for a lot less work.

My boat neighbor with a C34 went with the Varnish approach.  It looks great year one but the work of applying 8-10 coats of varnish and then having to strip and start over every few years was not appealing to me. 

The only thing I have varnished was a custom cockpit table that we built and I knew we would keep covered by the binnacle cover at all times when we were not sailing.  I did 9 coats of Epiphanes with sanding in between and it looks great but it was a lot of work.  I chose this because of the covering and because I didn't feel comfortable in our ability to wipe the surface clean after eating with Cetol on it.  It's like Latex paint in that it can be soft when hot.

[Noah]

The important thing with varnish is to not "let it go". A couple of coats per season should prevent Sue's apocalyptic scenario of having to strip and redo build-up again with mutiple coats. Epifanse also makes a product called Rapid Coat that is tinted and can be used to do quick build-up coats in a area that needs touch up (chipped/dinged/burned-through spots) and it makes those touched up spots blend pretty well with the older good built-up varnish.