Paying Pennance to the Teaki God

 Bella Boo-Boo Houdini - Official Teaki Guardian on La Vida Dulce

For the last four years we've oiled our exterior wood trim with teak oil instead of using a varnish.  We really like the look of oiled teak and felt the maintenance was easier than dealing with varnish.  After our trip to Bermuda we discovered that teak oil doesn't hold up well to being bathed in salt water.  We've cleaned and oiled it several times since then but all along we knew that eventually we'd be refinishing the teak and using varnish.  The time has finally arrived to take this on.  With less than six months to go before we depart this job has risen to the top of the priority list.  If we leave in March 2015 I won't have much time or good weather to fool around with outside projects.  I do plan to have the boat hauled so we can paint the bottom but once that's done I want to head South.  So here it is halfway through October and I've finally decided to refinish the teak.

On our boat we have what's called a toe rail which forms a cap over the hull-to-deck joint.  It's made of 1"x 1" laminated teak and is about 5" wide on top and drops down the side about 3".  On the side of the cabin above the ports is a trim piece called an eyebrow that is made of 3/4" half-round teak.  This runs from the forward end of the cabin all the way aft to the back of the cockpit coaming on each side.  Since we knew we were going to be refinishing these parts we let the oil finish go, probably for too long.  The wood now looks black and grey and the grain is raised.

Before anything else could be done there's a bump strip that had to be removed from the side of the toe rail.  This is a rounded strip of stainless steel maybe a 1/2" wide that runs around the full perimeter of the boat and protects the teak from undue blemishes.  It's held on with wood screws about every 8" and whoever took this off the last time re-installed it with a variety of screws and stripped out about half of them.  Once I had this removed I found the wood underneath was about 1/16" higher than the surrounding surface due to previous re-finishes and was packed with dirt and crud.  I kinda got a notion at this point that the job was gonna snowball.

Because of the condition of the wood I decided to attack it first with a carbide scraper.  This is a handy tool with a long handle to give you leverage and a 2.5" wide carbide blade.  I shaved off the raised grain and ended up with a fairly clean surface.  This was a pretty laborious job though and it took all day last Sunday to complete just 3/4 of the toe rail and one eyebrow.

Since the port side was completed Cheri suggested we focus on that side and sand it down and get a coat of varnish on before taking on the starboard side.  Good idea.  A little variety makes the job much more bareable.  This past weekend (10/25) I started in by taping off around all the teak to prevent any damage to the surrounding fiberglass. I then went at it with an orbital sander using 60 grit paper.  The upper flat surface of the toe rail wasn't too bad but the 3" wide section going down the side of the hull was a bear.  Trying to apply pressure to grind down that 1/16" rise while hanging over the railing was not a job for an old geezer like me.  If the boat was on the hard it would be much easier to stand on a ladder and lean into it.  Because I was using an orbital sander there were parts of the toe rail where cleats and other fittings were mounted that had to be done by hand.  With the coarse sanding finished we sat back and looked over our work.  This picture shows the bowsprit under three phases of attack; weathered, sanded and varnished teak.

For as long as we've had the boat we've fought water leaks into the interior.  One on the port side is pretty severe and we always get water into the hanging locker in the main salon, which just happens to be Cheri's clothes locker.  It's bad enough that when we had carpet in the salon it would get soaked in that area.  There are several possible sources including the port window seal, life-line stanchions where they're through-bolted in the deck, and gaps in the laminated wood of the toe-rail.  I guess there could be other sources but I can't picture what they could be.

So, standing there looking at our beautiful sanding job we realized that this was the best time to take care of those water leaks.  The stanchions definitely needed to be re-bedded and removing them would make it easier to finish the toe-rail.  The life-lines also needed replacing so that was even more incentive.  Thus we have the true beginnings of our "snowball".  The bases of each stanchion are held on with four bolts that extend through the toe-rail and deck into the interior.  Most of them are backed with threaded backing plates but a few had plates and nuts which required two people for removal.  The base plates and bolts are packed with an adhesive/sealant called 5200 which is the most tenacious material known to man.  It made unscrewing the bolts a Herculean effort and cleaning the bases and wood of the stuff became the source of some salty new terminology.  With the stanchions off we took the time to polish them up like new and refurbish the reefing line blocks (see picture) that had been attached to them.  Snowball.

With the stanchions out of the way it was a simple matter to sand down the areas where they had been mounted.  We then used a two-part cleaner on the teak.  Using cheap foam brushes we applied Part A which instantly turned the teak dark brown.  After light scrubbing we went back with Part B and another light scrubbing which left the wood beautifully cleaned with a nice natural blond color.  Once the wood was all cleaned we went over it with 180 grit paper, sanding by hand.

On close inspection of the toe-rail I identified four places where the laminations had separated.  The gap was small, less than 1/16", but would need to be sealed up before applying the first coat of varnish.  I used a two part epoxy in a syringe to seal up the gap and let it sit for half a day to harden up.

I'm planning to re-bed the stanchions with 5200 and I know it'll seal much better to natural wood than it would to varnish.  I'm in a conflict now though.  The weather report is calling for rain in 24 hours and lasting for two days.  If I don't get a coat of varnish on this wood it'll start to go grey on me and I'll hafta clean it and sand it again.  I've come too far for that so I taped off the areas where the stanchions get mounted.  With the stanchion held in place with two bolts I ran a razor blade around the base.  Removing the stanchion I peeled away the outside edge of the tape and now had the base area taped off and could put on my coat of varnish which would have a full 24 hours of drying time.  After the rain I can get the stanchions mounted to bare wood and put a second coat of varnish on the toe rail that will also seal the edges of the stanchion base.  By the time we get the fifth coat of varnish on we should have everything sealed up pretty well.  This shot shows the taped off areas for several stanchions.  It also shows how much it opened up the toe rail by removing them.  Compare it to the previous picture, same location.

Originally we were going to use Cetol which is not a varnish but a "wood treatment".  It's an alkyd resin with UV absorbing pigments which make it translucent, not quite clear.  We have Cetol on our cockpit coaming and it looks nice and holds up well but has a glossy orange kinda look to it, not quite natural.  Because it's translucent it doesn't show the full grain of the teak either.  I went as far as buying a can of Cetol but in the middle of the night I woke up thinking varnish is the only way to go.  The next day I took the Cetol back and got a can of Epifanes high gloss varnish.  As I laid down the first coat I knew I had made the right choice.  Epifanes gives the teak a nice golden glow.  Five coats of that will have a traditional high class look.  Perfect!  After all this work I wouldn't want anything less.