Ahoy Nonsuch folks,
Please share your experience with Plasteak products.
I am considering cabin top hand rails, a new eyebrow and new trim around the companionway. My question is how do these products hold up over time?
Randy Gadikian
Paisley
NS 26C #37
Buffalo, NY
My experience with Plasteak has been positive.
I had them build me a swim platform for my 26c. It was about half the cost of the heavy duty one available through INA.
Bob and I researched the material for the eyebrows at the same time.
I decided it was too much of a job but Bob went forward with it and successfully replaced his eyebrows, or rather his boat’s eyebrows.
Joe
NS26C #156
I replaced the companionway hatchboards and handrails with PlasTeak in 2019, and the eyebrow in 2020 on my 26C.
They held up well for the year I had the boat after that. I fell in lust with a 26U with a carbon fiber mast, bought it, and sold the 26C about six months ago. If the new owner’s on the discussion group, he might speak to any experience since then.
The hatchboards and handrails were an easy job. The eyebrow was harder, but really only because of my low skill level and because I did it entirely singlehanded – which was a very bad idea.
Someone with a little more skill and an assistant would find it very easy. Plasteak handrail material is very flexible when warmed with a heat gun. With an assistant to hold it while fastening, that makes it very easy to make the necessary bends and curves while keeping it straight. Because the sides of the coamings and cabintop are slightly curved, and the shape of the eyebrow is actually not a straight line, there are a lot of compound curves. Heating and fastening as I went made it very easy to follow them. Keeping the pieces in place while fastening them all by myself was challenging, though, and that’s why I’d get an assistant if I was doing it again.
With teak, the pieces meet at butt joints. Because PlasTeak has a bit more thermal expansion, they recommend scarf joints. I didn’t have the skill to make the ones match up well near the cabin front, where the compound curves are the most complex. No one said anything bad about them, at least to my face, but I felt bad about it.
PlasTeak comes with a finish. If you sand it in one direction with 40 grit sandpaper, it comes out looking very similar to fresh teak. Except, unlike fresh teak, it stays that way.
My boat was the next to last slip in the poor folks’ section. Three spots over is a 143’ power yacht with a billionaire owner who’s put seven different exotic woods on his boat. The boat captain was really impressed with the PlasTeak, said that he thought I was installing real teak, and got very seriously interested in using it on his owner’s boat.
I like the stuff.
Gotta go now, but here’s one picture (taken before I put bungs in the screw holes).
– Bob
Me Gusta
Nonsuch 26U #233
Bob, what did you use for bungs?
Brian
SV Serenity
Nonsuch Nereus #003
Pax River MD
PlasTeak sells 3/8th inch bungs at $0.25 each, listed as one of their “recycled plastic lumber” products. However, I just noticed that their website says all their plastic trim lumber is out of stock until further notice. So, people should probably call or email them to check what’s actually available.
You can also cut them yourself out of scrap with the appropriate plug cutter drill bit.
– Bob
Me Gusta
Nonsuch 26U #233
The previous owner of our 22 had removed the teak eye brow and replaced it with an auto detailing stripe. We felt it was quite effective and it was still in great shape when we sold the boat in 2020, so had been in place for 5 years. New owners say the boat still looks good. Is now in Montreal.
Regards,
Bill Wickett
Sorry for the upside down images above.
Hi,
That really is a good looking, zero maintenance alternative. Can we assume the hull stripe is vinyl too?
As our 40 year old hulls age, it would be nice to have more alternatives that don’t involve shelling out $1K+ a year to “freshen her up…again”.
The 22 is such a cool, full featured boat. I wish there were more made.
Cheers,
Mike and Ashley Read
NS 26C #120 Nauti Girl
Bath, Ont.
I agree, “Nauti Girl”, our NS22 packs an awful lot into 22 feet. My “Moustaches” has a an original tape eyebrow and it is looking pretty poor so Bill’s ex-vessel is a good inspiration.
Bill and I spent time on each others boats and I can tell you that, in his hands, it shone (and, likely, still does). He and Julie took long Lake Ontario trips on it until they succumbed to the charms of a divine Niagara 35.
But, what was really intriguing about Bill’s Nonsuch is that, the very day after he took ownership of the boat, mysteriously, it capsized and he spent the entire period with it in his possession, sailing it upside down. Apparently, it goes faster that way …
Another good reason to sail a Nonsuch 22.
Ernie A. in Toronto
PS - We weren’t supposed to have any rain today. This morning, as I pounded along, double-reefed, several miles out off Toronto, it rained. Awful. Just awful. Saturated, I sailed back in and, the moment I was tied back up in my slip, out came the sun. Such is life.
My MagicTime N22 proudly sports a Plasteak swim platform on her transom. The positives for Plasteak are 1. Super customer service 2. Very smart products of high quality 3. Flexibility to produce anything from duplicates of your original in good looking recycled products to custom requirements with reliable results 4. Their product offerings are complete and pricing is very reasonable. The negatives: Not aware of any.
My next project with them will be replacement of the hand rails. I’ve seen their hand rails on another boat and they looked first class. I feel a little guilty introducing new technology to the classic beauty of my NonSuch but she has happily accepted all other such violations of tradition and wears them well.
Ron Weber
N22 MagicTime
Punta Gorda Fl
