Teak decks. Should I run away????

[Na Mara]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

€40,000 sounds about right

Great thing about Regina is they stand by their boats. Throw enough money at them and they’ll do any tasteful upgrade you desire. Customers regularly return to get work done on their boats.

400000SEK is what I’m budgeting for a new deck. I’m also interested in redoing the aft cabin. Total renovation was 500k. Just replacing the bed was 200k-250k.

Sweden is expensive

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by mvweebles

BTW - Any tips on drying a wet balsa core that doesn't involve peeling skin, then re-fiberlgassing?

Peter

Current boat I had a few, mostly small areas of wet balsa core. Mostly around stanchions, 2-3" square more or less but a couple of larger spots around a chainplate pass through and a large one in the cockpit floor around the steering pedestal.

Since I could access the underside of the deck by removing the overheads or some trim I temporarily plugged the hole on the top of the deck with caulk, drill several small holes from the underside to the extent of the wet areas, then set a light bulb underneath for a week or three. The larger areas I left open for a few months. Then filled all the holes with thickened epoxy.

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by Sailor647

Our 1988 Norseman 400 had factory installed teak decks on it when we bought it in 2013. The teak was still 3/8" thick (original was 1/2'), so we opted to re-caulk the whole thing. Total cost was around $3,000 USD. (We did a lot of the labor.)

Fast forward to 2020 after 6 years in the Mexico sun. The 32 year old teak was starting to split and lift, even though the new caulking was still in good shape.

So, we tackled the job and removed the teak in our slip. (Our marina in La Paz allows working on boats.) Which included removing topside hardware, every single screw, drilling, cleaning, and filling every hole with epoxy resign and thickener, then laid down two layers of finish cloth, then two coats of epoxy. Then paint, then non-skid.

We found and repaired two small areas of wet in the AirEx cabin top, which we knew about because they were picked up in the original pre-purchase survey. Turns out it was wet because the standard molded cabin top was cut to accommodate the purchasing owner's teak deck request and the teak deck caulking eventually failed in that area.

The most time consuming part was removing the interior pieces of the boat so we could remove the exterior hardware like sail tracks, eye bolts, cleats, and the windlass. Luckily, the interior of the Norseman 400 is made to dis-and re-assemble.

Total cost for the teak deck removal, with all new topside paint (hand painted) and KiwiGrip nonskid was $3,426. We did most of the labor ourselves (hired a few days of day labor for sanding @$50 per day) and bought all the product in La Paz, Mexico, except the Kiwi Grip, resin and cloth which was ordered from the US and trucked down.

The teak was great in the Pacific Northwest, but hotter than hell in the tropics. The white non-skid made it easy to walk on without burning your feet and lowered the temperature inside the boat about 10-15 degrees.

It's not a difficult project, just very tedious and time consuming. It took about two months of working mornings and late afternoon.

Sounds and looks like a proper job removing the teak. And the Norseman is a great boat and worth the effort.

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by Mike Burch

I would be deeply suspicious of any boat fitted out with head linings which could not be removed without destroying anything. That is simply not good practice, and would make me wonder what else the builder wanted to hide.

When combined with a screwed (in more than one sense!) teak deck, that would have me heading for the hills.

I confess I didn't really focus on the overheads when I inspected the boat but unless I missed something, I'm pretty sure the overheads were installed with wood trim that was screwed countersunk and plugged. So removal would require popping all the bungs to remove the wood trim to then drop the overhead panels. Maybe Na Mara can confirm since he owns a Regina.

But yes, do agree whole heartedly. The ability to remove the overhead to access the underside of the deck I consider an important point.

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by MicHughV

Just a thought to the OP.....

Years ago, I had a steel boat. The decks were painted white with a grit addition for non-skid. That worked ok, unless I dropped something on the deck.

Then I discovered "Treadmaster". This is a flexible panel made of some kind of rubber/cork matrix and is about 3/16" thick with a diamond tread cut in the top.

You want " non-skid" ? this stuff is unbeatable. You can drop anything on it without worry.

I don't remember the size of the panels, but seem to recall around 4'x3'. It comes in various colors.

It gets glued on the decks with a one part epoxy glue.

You could, as an option, remove the teak decks, and place the treadmaster on top, without worrying about filling holes, sanding them smooth and re-doing the deck with paint and grit.

I redid my whole boat with this stuff. I made patterns out of paper, placed on the treadmaster panel and cut with a pair of stout scissors. I left about a 1" gap between panels to allow water to run off between panels. It cutes very easily, so cutting corners, chamfers, etc, is simple.

An additional feature, it provides another 3/16" insulation against the sun, so the interior of the boat is a tad cooler.

I had this stuff on my boat for the better part of 10 years without a lick of trouble.

I wanted the diamond tread to look uniform, ie, parallel to the boat center line, so I cut each piece with this in mind. The end result came out looking quite stunning....ahem....if I say so myself...

The whole process went remarkably quick. The same paper cutout can be used for both sides of the deck, by simply flopping it over.

Google "Treadmaster" and you will get all the data there.

I

Thanks for mentioning this. I vaguely recall Practical Sailor doing a long term test of various non skid options many years ago and I believe Treadmaster was one tested. I'll try to dig up the tests but if I recall it was great non skid but the adhesives they used at the time did not hold up. From your comments sounds like the epoxy did well.

[Oeanda]

Originally Posted by mvweebles.
BTW - Any tips on drying a wet balsa core that doesn't involve peeling skin, then re-fiberlgassing?

Peter

We’ve just removed headliner and fibreglass in a couple small convenient-ish spots on the assumption that with a dehumidifier running inside the boat it has to dry out eventually, no matter how slight the access. I realize this isn’t quite why you asked. But I assume that even a few holes drilled to the core would be enough, given time and a waterproof deck. .

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by mako

Wow Skip. I would never spend money on a ticket without having an agreed price and an offer from the broker drafted and ready for signature and deposit. You then fly out there and inspect and if it meets your needs then write a check there on the boat. I’ve done it before. Stop wasting your money and time.

Remember, for the most part, sellers and brokers are deceptive. And if you don’t agree with that statement then you can believe that few boats are as good in real life as their photos make them out to be.

In this case as much as anything wanted to check out the interior layout of the boat and for that it was worth the trip. And I have to say, the pictures very accurately showed the condition of the boat, including the condition of decks except for the screws and there out of thousands of screws there were only 4-5 with popped bungs. The whole trip was less than $500 and for a $265,000 boat that's a small investment.

Besides, there are two more on the market in Europe that are a bit newer and I believe with the deck glued only so now I feel equipped to possibly make and offer on one of those.

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

€40,000 sounds about right

This was consistent with other deck repair prices I've seen in the past.

I have to say that reports of deck replacements for less than $10,000 sound incredible at least in 2021. Maybe 20 years ago but with current prices of teak I doubt it could be done for double that even in Asia today.

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by LakeSuperior

Your assessment is incomplete in that you should do a cross-comparison with the pros and cons of a plastic cored deck.

The look and feel of a teak deck is directly comparable to some of the finer things in our lives.

Have never owned a plastic cored deck but several balsa core decks. First one was done right and dry as a bone. The current boat had leaks around a few stanchions, chainplates and one in the cockpit floor. Do a proper fix IE overdrill, fill the hole with thickened epoxy, redrill the hole and reinstall and you have a balsa core deck that will last the life of the boat.

I do agree that teak decks are beautiful, functional and a nice boat with pristine teak decks makes me absolutely drool. But step on one barefoot, midday in August in the Caribbean and you will have a whole different opinion on the advantages of teak decks.

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by Chalifour

We just had ours replaced on a Jeanneau DS43. Cost us 7500 euros excluding the cockpit which only had to be sand down to match colour and surface. Great job but messy + you must check for water infiltrations while work is in progress

€7500 for all new teak decks? That is about 20% of what the factory quoted to replace the decks on this boat.

This was done in Turkey? Teak or Iroko or other wood? Based on the most recent research I've done it would cost more than that just for the teak wood.

[JPA Cate]

Originally Posted by Oeanda

We’ve just removed headliner and fibreglass in a couple small convenient-ish spots on the assumption that with a dehumidifier running inside the boat it has to dry out eventually, no matter how slight the access. I realize this isn’t quite why you asked. But I assume that even a few holes drilled to the core would be enough, given time and a waterproof deck. .

That's an interesting concept, and I really hope it works for you.

My concern is that the water will have a very hard time getting to the holes to get sucked out, and that the balsa shall have broken down into a kind of slimy mess.

We had a balsa core on our previous boat, and Jim did two repairs to it, at the chainplates and adjacent to a deck prism, where the top part of the fiberglass had delaminated a bit from the core. The latter repair was accomplished by drilling holes and pumping in epoxy, and was subsequently repainted. The chainplates were harder, and when he lifted the top off, the balsa had degraded so much, that he spooned it out with a teaspoon. It was VERY wet.

Anyhow, if it does work for you with the de-humidifier, please let us all know.

Thanks in advance, Ann

[Oeanda]

My experience is that even wood in awkward spots dries over time and it will equalize given the chance. It has no choice. Of course I don’t expect rot to rewind though.

[mako]

Originally Posted by skipmac

This was done in Turkey? Teak or Iroko or other wood? Based on the most recent research I've done it would cost more than that just for the teak wood.

Does anyone know about the use of wild jack wood? It’s supposedly about one step below teak and is widely available in Asia

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by LakeSuperior

The look and feel of a teak deck is directly comparable to some of the finer things in our lives.

Like a fine top of the line skillet over a hot burner?

Teak had it's place in the day's of square riggers...it's like a lot of "finer things", lower quality but sold as a luxury item, so people in search of image and ego don't care.

[Na Mara]

Originally Posted by Oeanda

My experience is that even wood in awkward spots dries over time and it will equalize given the chance. It has no choice. Of course I don’t expect rot to rewind though.

This is why I dry out in a warehouse every year for 6 months.