Teak Work
Darin, Your question was actually about stain, so I will answer that first. Stain is really a personal choice. Whatever color you prefer is the color you should use. Do remember that several coats of varnish will slightly darken the stain, however. I have had good luck with Polyshades Honey Pine, a really light stain. But I also like the look of the teak without any stain, just varnish.Which brings me to varnish. There are two types of sailors - those who use varnish and those who don't. They probably don't sail much different from one another, and you probably can't pick them out in a crowd. But when you pass their boats, you can clearly see which wood looks the best. Like LaDonna said, Cetol has a distinctive look about it. Many say it is an orangey kind of hue. All I know is that it does not look like varnish (which allows the wood to glow), and it is just about as much work.If you really want your wood to look like a million bucks, go with a standard varnish. I have used West Marine's Skipper's Varnish with fantastic results. Start with a solution of 50 percent varnish, and 50 percent mineral spirits. Do a couple coats of that to seal the wood. Then increase the varnish with succesive coats, until you are using 100 percent varnish. Remember to keep coats as thin as possible. The thinner the coats, the less sanding between them. 8 to 10 coats should do you fine. If you take the teak off the boat, you don't lose any sailing time, which is why I remove the teak when I work on it. It is also easier to apply varnish this way, and of course you don't spill any on the deck.In the end, it is all a matter of what you like to look at. I love varnish, its smell, and its beautiful luster. And without sounding snooty (which I doubt anyone will ever accuse me of)it is a small part of what makes any boat into a yacht. Also, there is a reason it has been around for a few centuries... For more opinions you can check the archives... just look up the word teak.Best Regards, and have fun!Rob