What do we mean by low maintenance--the teak wood issue.

[Kings Gambit]

Having owned, sailed, and maintained boats in both Florida and California, I've seen, heard, and thought a lot about teak on sailboats. My Bavaria 38 has a teak deck; a type called decorative teak which is thin, backed by plywood, and essentially "glued" to the deck, there being no screws into the deck. There is caulking between the teak wood rows. I was very concerned about the maintenance of a teak deck because of all of the horror stories I had heard from other boat owners about their boat teak. Namely, what a chore it was to maintain, etc. I asked my surveyor how to maintain the decks, and he told me to just brush them regularly with clean sea water across the grain. That's It???

Eight years later my teak decks are as good as new. It's true that they are grayish compared to treated teak, but they are easy to maintain this way. I just get up early enough to wash them down with sea water before the dew dries, and do this as often as I can.

Eventually, I came to the recognition that boats that spend a lot of time at sea are frequently awash in sea water. Teak loves sea water. Teak is a truly low maintenance wood; that's why it's on sailboats. There is absolutely no hope of applying varnish or oil to the teak of a boat at sea "to maintain it."

These owners who complain about teak maintenance on the outside of their boats have created work for themselves unnecessarily. Varnish on teak, oil on teak, or the absence of teak to avoid varnishing or oiling it, is an artifact of boats that spend too much time in a slip, and not enough time getting wet in the right places. Maybe the best way to keep up your teak is to take the boat to sea and get it wet!!

 

[zeehag]

if you keep it douched with sea water is not a big deal. but has to be done every day . teak shrinks and dries without sea water douchings daily. when teak has dried then you have problems.

 

[Casco bay]

I try to maintain teak on my boat in Maine. Because of the short season and no storage out of the elements, I have a really limited time to sand and varnish...and I love the look of varnished teak..so every season I end up sanding and re- varnishing. I guess I have accepted this as 'regular maintenance' of teak. That said, I invariably go through periods of time when my britework looks really bad. I've been tempted to let it go grey or use an oil, but I guess I just can't let go of the look of a shiny varnished coaming, etc. To be a boat owner I think you have to be a bit masochistic anyhow...

 

[RichH]

With the current price of teak approaching $50/ board. ft. ... to me its simply fiscal insanity to let it erode away.

 

[Ducati]

Salt Water Works Great

Cetol, varnish, oil and whatever crap you put on teak is a total waste of time and a "make-work" project.

We give the teak on our boat a once a week wash with salt water and it always looks great.

Spend more time sailing and less worrying about the wood.

Cheers

 

[njsail]

Let's not forget the "other" teak maintenance. There is probably over 1000 linear feet of caulking on all that low maintenance teak. A week or so on your hands and knees with lots of fun tools and sticky substances and your back to low maintenance. ....and I'm a fan of natural teak. Now if only Irene would leave me to the fun of teak maintenance.

 

[Barnacle Bill]

I have taken care of a number of Bavaria teak decks and one thing I did with pretty good results was use Interlux's Teak Restorer to clean it. It is a one part solution that is not as agressive as the two part cleaners and since the teak is thin, as you pointed out, you don't want to use anything that will chemically wash it away. Then I also used Interlux's teak oil. It is way spendy in comparison to other teak oils, but the stuff lasts a long time and is easy to apply and kept the wood looking good for much longer than the usual teak oils you find in chandleries. I use it on my teak deck furniture too and it really lasts, I think. I have used Cetol on a number of boats and that is fine for some applications, but don't recommend it on teak decks because of the maintenance issue of keeping it up. On solid teak it is not so bad. On one boat I have I varnish my teak with Epiphanes varnish formulated for teak. It is great stuff, but I wouldn't varnish teak decking, just the solid trim, boards, etc. Varnishing is a labor of love and the results of that effort is no better showcased than in Maine where the boats are fastideously maintained bright. Very impressive indeed.

 

[zeehag]

teak decking needs to be douched with sea water to prevent shrinkage which causes all your problems. every day it needs that sea water. it NEEDS nothing else. prevent shrinkage and the other problems do not happen.
coating it with stuff reduces the non skid feature of the wood,

 

[Kings Gambit]

Yeah, caulking is not fun to do or to pay for having it done. Good caulking should last a long time if it's not treated with harsh chemicals. It's back to the issue of chemical treatment of the wood. Chemical treatment may be OK for the teak if you want to do it, but maybe not so good for the caulking. Obviously, that problem would not apply to the other outside teak.

 

[higgs]

I have teak everywhere. I am changing my trim to cetol and have not yet decided if I like it. On deck I can see no reason to do anything but give it a good scrubbing every year to get the dirt out. My deck is a slivery grey and offers terrific footing either wet or dry.

 

[Mike Turner]

At the risk of heresy: has anyone ever tried any of the clear or semi-transparent coatings used for wood decks? There are different types, but some of them are one-coat and supposed to last 1-3 years on horizontal boards and longer on vertical surfaces. Since decks are exposed to sun and rain (but not salt water), I'm wondering how they would stand up in the marine environment?

 

[Forrest15112]

teak decking needs to be douched with sea water to prevent shrinkage which causes all your problems. every day it needs that sea water. it NEEDS nothing else. prevent shrinkage and the other problems do not happen.
coating it with stuff reduces the non skid feature of the wood,

But isn't this saying it needs to be swashed with water daily because the water dries out daily? My boat has very, very little exposed teak, but I've used boiled linseed oil for over 16 years on it and it doesn't dry out in the sun at all. I was under the impression that teak was so weather resistant partly because of the oil in the wood. I don't have enough to really offer anything on the non-skid properties since there are only two small steps of teak on my boat, but they've never seemed slick at all in the past either wet or dry. I find the oil quick and easy to prep and apply.

 

[RichH]

At the risk of heresy: has anyone ever tried any of the clear or semi-transparent coatings used for wood decks? There are different types, but some of them are one-coat and supposed to last 1-3 years on horizontal boards and longer on vertical surfaces. Since decks are exposed to sun and rain (but not salt water), I'm wondering how they would stand up in the marine environment?

A marine version of such coatings is called SEMCO also used extensively on teak garden furniture. Such typically lasts 4-6 months even with green water occasionally ON the deck.

Or. you can 'mix' 1/3 SEMCO, 1/3 Teak Wonder, 1/3 Olympic deck which seems to last a little longer.

Such lightly pigmented marine coatings SEAL the teak from UV etc. damage, allow water to penetrate the WOOD, keep the bungs and caulk lines sealed, prevent surface erosion .... and still keep the 'wet traction' almost exactly the same as bare teak. Teak decks without protection only last ~15 years, then need either major overhauling or entire replacement. A few $$ per year in 'maintenance' or eventual costly replacement is the choice.

For brightwork you can use one of the modern 2-parts which typically protect for upwards of 10 years if applied thick but require a quick minor 1-2 year maintenance (clear) coat; Cetol is also easy to apply and is long lasting but ultimately 'builds up' then 'cracks'. Or, you can let your teak go-grey and erode and then simply replace the dried-out, split, and eroded teak ~15 years in the future.
The subspecies of teak currently harvested simply do not have the 'staying power' vs. sun, UV, and erosion as the old standby Burmese/Siamese teak that has been overharvested and is now are almost impossible to obtain unless you want to spend more than $50 per board ft.

There is no free lunch; not even a salt water 'soaked' free lunch. ;-)

 

[zeehag]

teak decks are for nonskid, not looks. whenye place a shine on them you no longer have that nonskid. is slickery and will make falls happen. not cool.
sea water doesnt dry out teak. it moisturizes it. the installers of teakwood decking tell you to douche it DAILY wioth sea water. if you dont you get dried out teakwood and splitting wood and polysilfide caulking separatrion from the wood.
simple.
douche with sea water and stop trying to reinvent the wheel. is simple. sea water for teak. also doesnt cost anything.