Advice on Teak Rails

Bob4203 · Aug 29, 2012

Congradulations on being a Catalina 30 owner. You will get pretty good advice here at this forum.

You have plenty of deck teak on your 30 and cleaning, sanding and finishing has never been a popular task, but the outcome is often worth the efforts.

1. you can use any silicone caulk in the holes to stop the water temporarily. As long as the caulk or sealant can be easily removed. The tape will fail in time so secure those holes!

2. Sikkens Cetol is great stuff and favored by many over varnish. Unprotected (no sunbrella type cover or overlay) varnished rails will peel over time and require a lot of effort to remove as you will find out. Cetol is a great choice.

3. You can use any topical varnish remover like Strypeeze that is caustic and requires application with a brush, hand protection and a simple rinse or wipe off. I have used this stuff and its simple and effective. Sanding alone can sometimes burn the varnish into the wood requiring more elbow grease. Using varying grits (heavy like an 80 working to a 150-200) to get the stuff off will be necessary. Lastly use bronze wool over steel wool for final finish followed with a tack rag. The varnish remover saves lots of time and since your rails are off the boat may be a good time to use it.

3. Many different bedding compounds on the market, but a polyurethane based sealant as opposed to a polysulfide based sealant could soften with teak cleaners.

I am sure many will chime in with much more information and recommendations in answer to your inquiry. We all learn from this forum.

Ralph Johnstone · Aug 29, 2012

1. While the rails are off the boat, any recos on how to keep the water from coming in through the holes? Right now it is blue painters tape, but that won't last long...

Plug the holes with butyl tape (refer to #4 for more detail here) and then tape over with blue painters tape to be xtra sure. Blue tape will last the winter. The whole mess can then be easily removed later.

2. Non-gloss Cetol is what I am thinking about using to refinish. Is that advisable in most opinions?

If you want to re-finish your rails every year, go ahead and use Cetol. If you want them to look like wet varnish for the next 5+ years, coat them with four coats of clear epoxy and then a few coats of varnish. See reply #2 on below link.

http://forums.sbo.sailboatowners.com/showthread.php?p=897251&highlight=wet varnish

3. There appears to be a bit of remaining varnish on the teak on this boat, so I am assuming some sanding will be necessary...I don't know the grit to use, but assume fine. I have also heard steel wool works well, but don't know if it will handle varnish. Any tips on this process are welcome.

Use 120 where necessary to "just" remove any heavy varnish and then finish off everything with 240.

4. Any caulk recommendations for reinstallation would be great.

The best would be butyl tape which is easy to apply, always remains soft, and NEVER lets go like every other crap adhesive out there (except maybe 5200 ). Do a search for Maine Sail's articles on butyl tape.

caguy · Aug 29, 2012

I agree with everything that Ralph says. However, I don't think the blue tape is necessary it can be a real PITA to take off later. Before you rebed with butyl make sure that you remove all of the silicone if that what was used before.
I like the clear gloss Cetol even if it doesn't have the UV protectants. I don't like the yellow tinge of the the Cetol with UV protection. I made some Sunbrella covers for mine to protect them from the sun. I made them with a special Sunbrella call Supreme. It has a very soft texture on one side and the Sunbrella canvass on the other. I used 1"x1" Velcro to secure them between every other rail support. they are easily removed with just a tug, or secure enough to leave them on when I sail. I also extended the a cover that was on the cabin roof to include the slider rails. It also drops down into the cockpit to cover the companion way teak rails and hatch. It's been a year since I varnished them and they still look like new.

caguy · Aug 29, 2012

Here is a Drawing of the Rail Covers

I am posting this because it seems like such a logical and simple way to protect rails. I have not seen them on any other boat in my limited experience. They are easy to make and will save you hours to sanding and refinishing your rails.

DanM · Aug 29, 2012

I think the various teak coatings come down to what "what look do you like and how much time are you willing to put into it?" It is a personal choice I think, since, really, let's be honest here... you could just let the teak weather as it has been done for a long time and look pretty salty while doing it!

Personally, I like the Cetol Natural Teak look with a few coats of Cetol gloss over the top. This photo is not long after I did this years maintenance coat which is just scuffing it up with a Scotch Brite pad and putting on another coat or two of Cetol Gloss about once a year. I started with bare teak about three years before this photo was taken.

Specifically, though, in the picture you'll see that there are Sunbrella covers over the grab rails. I find that they are so difficult to keep looking good (because of all the curves that are hard to keep looking good without removing them from the boat) that I just made up the covers for them and I rarely ever take them off. The reality of the way I use the boat is that really I just lock my foot against those "grab" rails when I'm on deck reefing (or just passing through) and I haven't found that having the opening blocked by the Sunbrella to be a problem at all.

Of course all of this is just a personal choice, just another thought on it.

Oh, I'm a huge butyl tape fan though, I rarely use any other substance when it comes to keeping the water on the outside, and would highly recommend it for use on your grab rails.

DanM.

rbmcintire · Aug 30, 2012

Dan,
Nice picture of J. Marie with "a bone in her teeth"...
(we also did the Cetol Natural Teak with two coats of Cetol Clear Gloss on top).

Rob

jrowan · Sep 3, 2012

I guess I'm another vote for the natural Cetol look. Remember to varnish over it, because if you don't apply multiple finish top coats of varnish the Cetol will start to peel & fade within 6 to 8 months. Although I DO NOT recommend using any steel wool on your deck. The metal fibers will leave small, dark srcratched in stains on you gel coat, that is hard to remove. Even a sharp putty knife or screwdriver will leave metal scratches on your gelcoat. Avoid scraping with anything metal on your deck all together if you can. My advice on the rails is go ahead & install them now, then you don't have to worry about water migrating in & rotting your deck core. That would be a much bigger fix then to just do it right & do it now.

jrowan · Sep 3, 2012

PS. My dock neighbor has a C 30 with all of the winches & deck rails removed for the past 6 months. I don't see the holes plugged with anything, & by the time he gets around to it, his foot is gonna go through the deck all together due to rot. Don't be one of "those guys." Cheers.

DanM · Sep 4, 2012

The newer formula of Cetol (wave or something) is supposed to have some UV protection built in. If you are going for the shiny look (which I do!) I'd use a few coats of Cetol Gloss over it versus varnish personally. UV is going to eat up anything, but the gloss is easy to maintain.

Green or red scotch brite pads work well for scuffing up the surface some.

DanM

Advice on Teak Rails

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