Longest lasting treatment for teak cap rail?

[Whitebread117]

Teak cap rail, minimal exterior brightwork. Stanchions, chain plates, padeyes, running lights, and solar wiring all run through the cap rail (ketch rig).

The prior owner used a rubbed varnish finish that is seriously degrading 2.5 years after application. I'm looking to redo and want the longest lasting finish possible.

The varnish looks (looked actually) nice, but it's the only wood on the exterior of the boat. With all the cap rail penetrations refinishing will be a pain. This is a basic 70s charter-finished boat and I'm just fine with a nontraditional finish if I can get 5 years of life in Florida conditions. Paint, a modern varnish alternative, etc I'm all ears. I want a bit better than workboat finish, but durability is key and I'm not looking for yacht finish.

I thought about just letting it weather to natural gray but am concerned about the unprotected teak shrinking and leaking around the penetrations- is this a valid concern?

Thanks!

[HBWT]

If you want the least amount of maintenance, kept it bare and give it a salt water bath at least once a month with a very soft brush or mop. You should have no leakage and the teak will not warp or shrink because it is raw. If you want the most durable finish outside of 2pack paint, I think Coelan still holds the record but it is pricy and you must follow the instructions exactly. The finish will be amazing and should last at least 4 years in the tropics. Regarding any other varnishes, you would need to do a maintenance coat every year no matter what you use.

[leftbrainstuff]

Good looks and low maintenance are incompatible requirements. A teak finish lasting for 'x' years is a pipe dream.

If you want low maintenance go bare teak. If it dries out then permanent damage occurs. Constant use and dousing with sea water works best. Don't brush, sand or remove any material for longevity.

Hand rubbed multi coat varnish looks best but will keep you gamefully employed forever.

We went with a teak compatible deck stain on our Liberty 458. I don't love the look but I dislike grey, dry teak even more.

The stain is a good balance of look and effort. Plus the stain minimizes drying out which degrades any joins and sealant.

We replaced our teak deck with pvc based Dek King. All the benefits of teak including new teak look and non slip with none of the maintenance. I love it.

If we can get the right sections then we'll replace all the exterior teak. Problem solved.

The solid hand rubbed interior teak remains.

[Dennis.G]

Longest lasting treatment will be to paint it over. Seen it done a few times, and done right doesn't look bad at all. Can look much better than teak just left to the weather.
We use Teak Wonder, and have used Simco. Both are a bit similar to using teak oil, but provide more protection. Need to reapply every 3 months, but easy to do if you stay with it.
Used to have varnish, but too much work for my taste.

[sparrowhawk1]

Sikkens cetol Marine. They had a little bit of a bad rap when they first came out cuz they were tinted Orange. But now you can get natural which I think looks nice but some people still think it doesn't look like real varnish. it's close enough to me and the beauty of it is if it gets scuffed up or worn down in spots you can just sand and feather and re- paint, just the area that was scuffed. Also if you keep up on it you just have to lightly sand the whole boat woodwork and you can repaint. And if you go to a craft store and get a bottle with a paintbrush in the lid like ones that hold rubber cement and put a piece of sandpaper held to the bottle with a rubber band it makes touch-ups super easy. All that said I've just let the teak go natural on my boat (which is only the toe rails and handrails) and use cetol on the cockpit table. Unlike oil it does not collect dirt. Unlike varnish it does not peel, just kind of Fades away.

[JPA Cate]

Clean and varnish it, then put paint. The paint holds up very well, and it can all be removed with a heatgun and putty knife. The varnish prevents the paint from coloring the teak, and then, if you ever want to look at the pretty teak again, it can be varnished or Cetol-ed.

I have seen some teak painted silver grey, like the color it goes if you leave it natural, also maroon, and a kind of teak-color. All of those colors looked good on the boats.

Ann

[minaret]

Awlwood. Year three on my first job and it looks like the day it was applied.

[donradcliffe]

Originally Posted by minaret

Awlwood. Year three on my first job and it looks like the day it was applied.

Washington State ain't Florida.

[Stu Jackson]

Ladies & Gentlemen,

The "natural" progression of "dealing with exterior teak" usually runs like this:

--- teak oil

or

--- Nothing

--- varnish

--- cetol

--- nothing

---teak oil or Semco

--- nothing

--- varnish

--- cetol

Repeat as necessary...

Nothing much has changed in the last 25 years about this subject...

[zboss]

I've switched from semco to seabrite tropical teak sealer. the semco was quick to apply and looked good new but only lasted a few months. The sealer I applied 16 months ago just got a touch up. It blends well with the older applications with a little cleaning. I apply with a rag. If you apply it lightly using a rag and wipe up the stuff left on the surface, it doesn't get an orange cast.

[minaret]

Originally Posted by donradcliffe

Washington State ain't Florida.

Yeah, the endless rain around here is way harder on varnish.

[Suijin]

Originally Posted by minaret

Yeah, the endless rain around here is way harder on varnish.

At $70 a quart, it better be awesome. That's some serious kwan for high-tech varnish. Do you have to buy the primer and topcoat separately?

To your point about rain, I believe that UV is the biggest foe of clear coatings like this. Unless you have lots of acid in your rain.

I'm on year 3 of my Cetol application. Three coats of natural followed by two coats of gloss, which basically approximates the look of varnish minus varnishes lovely flowout. It too looks like the day I put it down, but it's time for another coat of clear just to be safe. They specify three coats of pigmented before you topcoat with gloss. I assume that's what gives it some UV resistance.

Minaret, don't get me wrong, I'd gladly pay $30 more per quart for a product that outperformed the others in the market; it's a drop in the bucket compared to the labor involved. How has Awlwood performed against Cetol in the PNW.

[sparrowhawk1]

Suijin, right on both accounts. I've lived in Connecticut and Florida and Florida's much harsher. Also the pigmentation is what protects from UV.

[minaret]

Originally Posted by Suijin

At $70 a quart, it better be awesome. That's some serious kwan for high-tech varnish. Do you have to buy the primer and topcoat separately?

To your point about rain, I believe that UV is the biggest foe of clear coatings like this. Unless you have lots of acid in your rain.

I'm on year 3 of my Cetol application. Three coats of natural followed by two coats of gloss, which basically approximates the look of varnish minus varnishes lovely flowout. It too looks like the day I put it down, but it's time for another coat of clear just to be safe. They specify three coats of pigmented before you topcoat with gloss. I assume that's what gives it some UV resistance.

Minaret, don't get me wrong, I'd gladly pay $30 more per quart for a product that outperformed the others in the market; it's a drop in the bucket compared to the labor involved. How has Awlwood performed against Cetol in the PNW.

I can safely assure you Cetol is not even in the ballpark. For the record, I've used every product on this thread and a great many more, tested most of them comprehensively, been involved with factory reps and warranties for many years.

Awlwood is a new product in America, which is why I bring it up here, despite the litany of the same old recipes people always come up with. I have many jobs out there in all sorts of product lines, with varying degrees of longevity. For me, the jury is still out on Awlwood, as as I said the oldest job I have out there in this product is three years old, since that is when it came on the market here.

However, this product has been in use for many years in NZ. They claim they are getting 10 yrs or more between maintenance coats. I have a hard time believing that they got zero joint movement resulting in cracking of the finish in this time, but it is designed to be extremely flexible, even more so than a long spar varnish like Epiphanes. Remains to be seen the ultimate longevity, but so far I'm very impressed. And I assure you, it's quite cheap compared to the next runner up for longevity, Awlgrip's Ultimate Brightwork System (designed for megayachts and priced accordingly). This company and product line from NZ was purchased by Akzo Nobel, the worlds biggest paint company, so they must have thought they had something.

The last boat I did in Awlwood (quite recently), my crew and I heat stripped the boat and wooded it out clean, the owner applied the product (with some assistance), and then we came back and did the beauty beads. Looks frigging amazing! Very easy DIY. Cost her $3500 for the whole boat, she was very happy. 20k for a crappy yard Epiphanes job with not enough coats on it, so it only lasts two years at best. YMMV.


Oh, and when it comes to rain:

If you dare, take a beach towel and wrap it around your nice teak cap rail at a joint. Then let a garden hose trickle on it so it stays wet for a week or two. Take it off and you will have some idea of the challenges of maintaining a bright finish through a Seattle winter if it's not under cover.
(PS: Please don't really do this!)

[minaret]

To be both clear and fair, I'm quite aware that Cetol is super easy to do and can last fairly well. But I'd say that "basically approximates the look of varnish minus varnishes lovely flowout" is optimistic at best. But I have very very high standards, as I am paid to do so. Awlwood meets these standards, with a DOI that meets or exceeds any other clear coat out there. It also goes on really thick, my usual minimum number of coats on teak not counting split coats is 12, standard is 16, using most traditional varnish systems. Awlwood achieves similar millage and depth in about eight coats, not counting the primer.

For the record, I've only used the clear primer, I believe there's a yellow and a red primer option as well, similar to a stain. Haven't gone there. Have four jobs done in Awlwood, very happy with all of them. JMHO.