Peter Farley
Knot in a hurry u30
Keyport NJ
All of my teak has been left to weather for I don’t know how long. This spring I want to give it a nice finish. In prep for that I started inspecting the teak. I see several places like this where the shaped teak has pulled away from the fiberglass. Do I try and get this back tight to the hull or do I try and fill the space with something?
Peter,
I can’t advise you what to do because that depends on your preferences, but for what it’s worth, here’s what I learned about the teak eyebrow in the course of removing it and replacing it with PlasTeak on my previous Nonsuch, a 26C…
-
If the teak is too far gone, sanding it down to make it suitable for varnishing may take the bungs down to where they no longer grip, resulting in them popping out and exposing the screws holding the eyebrow to the cabinsides. You’ll have to decide how you feel about that. (In my case, it’s why I went for replacement rather than refurbishing.) If you try to get it tighter back to the hull, you’ll have to drill out the bungs anyway, so you can assess how much teak’s left to hold any replacement bungs.
-
The thin layer of white stuff that appears in your picture between the cabin and the teak is the residue of some very unevenly tenacious caulking material; I suspect that it’s something like the LifeSeal combination polyurethane/silicone cauking product sold by BoatLife. In some areas, it peeled right off, in others no amount of effort with putty knives and Dremel wirebrushing worked. The reason that I suspect silicone was involved is that it wasn’t particularly friendly to replacement caulks, although butyl tape ended up working well.
-
The teak piece can get quite brittle if too far gone. In some cases, the eyebrow literally broke just from bending it out to get my putty knife under.
-
I don’t think the eyebrows ever were entirely flush with the cabin even originally. As near as I can tell, the original caulking was there to fill those gaps. It was simply close enough in color to the hull, and sufficiently adherent with varnish so as not to be obvious. It was pretty thick in a number of spots (greater than 1/8th inch) when I removed it. If you choose to try to fill it, you’ll need to look for something that’s just the right viscosity to get in there without dripping through below.
-
The cabinsides on N26s are solid fiberglass; I don’t know whether or not they’re solid or cored on N30s. There are folks who’ve posted about rebedding their ports who might know. Either way, you’re safer to assume that the screws holding the toerail penetrate all the way through the side (although, of course, not the interior liner). So, you’ll need to make sure that there’s some sealant around the screws so that water doesn’t penetrate. I.e., the caulking is not just cosmetic.
Since I didn’t stick with the teak, I’m afraid my ability to help ends here unless you decide to replace the eyebrow entirely. Hopefully, others will chime in.
PlasTeak is not for everyone. I was happy and got good feedback from dock neighbors. However, it depends on your aesthetic preferences and how you feel about doing or paying for varnishwork. There was sufficient effort involved that I’d recommend considering replacement with either material only if the current teak is too far gone. (That’s why I’m back to teak on my current N26.) The effort and skill levels required for PlasTeak are slightly less than for replacing with new teak, because PlasTeak can be made flexible with a heat gun while real teak requires steaming.
– Bob
Me Gusta
Nonsuch e26U #233
I think it can be saved, teak is remarkably resilient. I think I would go through these steps.
- You will need a lot of 3/8" teak plugs. Get a tapered plug cutter (Lee Valley and others have hem) and make a lot of plugs.
- You can tell where pieces of teak join.Start with a piece that is on the bottom of a joint (closet to the boat). Drill out 3 or 4 plugs the join with a Forstner bit.
- Remove the screws from the holes.
- Drill the holes at most about 1/4” deeper
- Put some butyl tape or other caulking material behind the bar.
- Put the screws back in, tight at the join and less tight away from the join.
- Continue the process a few hundred times.
- Glue in new plugs
- Carefully cut off plugs
- Use a two part teak cleaner
- Sand as needed
- Finish wood - there has been lots of discussion about this
For what it’s worth, when Bruce gets to point #7 in his advice (“continue the process a few hundred times”), it’s actually not quite that bad. I think my N26 used 108 3/4" screws to do the job on what turned out to be about 46.5 ft. of eyebrow. So a N30 probably needs more, but probably less than 200.
– Bob
Me Gusta
Nonsuch e26U #233
If it were me, I would try filling. Putting the screws in further carries a risk of putting a screw through the liner. In the picture the teak looks to be in good enough condition that scraping with a cabinet scraper and sanding should allow a reasonable surface for varnishing. You likely won’t achieve a perfect glass look but it should give a decent 6’ job.
Mark Powers
Started the teak restoration. I went with total boat.Sanded the door with 80 girt to remove all the junk than120 girt to smooth it out. 2 coats of total boat wood sealer and 8 coats of total boat gleem 2.0. The total boat products required no sanding between coats and only 2 hours drying time between coats. Here is a before and after picture.
Peter Farley
Knot in a hurry u #328
Keyport nj
Oooh, shiny!
Looking good, Peter.
– Bob
Me Gusta
Nonsuch e26U #233
Great job Peter!
Peter Grabow
S/V CAKE WALK III
1987 30U 430
Jersey City, NJ
Sanding teak can be challenging. The wood is really layers of soft and hard and tends to wear where the soft layers are. I have found a sharp scraper removes just enough to yield a smooth finish that is varnish ready.