my way
I use varnish,, the joke is those who love boating use cetol, those who love their boats us varnish. I also cover the varnished toerails and grab rails during the week when not sailing. If you don't want to use rottenstone to get that last bit of luster out of your varnish work, a good automotive polishing compound works just fine. Also, erases some bad spots and surface dust marks. Just let the teak harden up for a few days. Learned that when owning an old Jaguar. Everyone used rottenstone on their dash, "so traditional." Polishing compound is much neater and easier to store. On areas not exposed to the sun like the interior side of hatch boards, I use self leveling urethane like bartop seal, then varnish -looks like glass. Exterior: four coats of a tung oil/linseed oil mixture, followed by eight coats of Z-spar Captains. Foam brushes work just fine for all coats, for the final coat there is a very good foam brush at Lowes which costs about $3.00 that really lays down a smooth coat. That being said, I have a friend who is a professional varnisher and he can make cetol light with clear coats look terrific. He gets $50/ hour - to rich for me, so I plug away. Have also seen cetol light sprayed with auto clear coat. That should really last. Covering is still the best route. I varnished a boat five years ago; sold it, the teak hasn't been touched but is always covered except when in use and it still looks terrific. Another lesson learned the hard way. If the tape is seven day tape take it off after three; 14 day tape take it off after three, etc. I have also tried to convince my wife that she is much better at varnishing than I am. She IS a lot less sloppy, which cuts down on taping and drip cleaning.
