I am a boating traditionalist and I feel that a yacht is not really a true boat unless there is some outside teak nicely varnished. We call that teak brightwork. But today’s boat builder prefers not to use any teak if at all possible at the insistence of today’s consumer.That is too bad as I often hear buyers tells me “if there is any teak to maintain forget it”.. To me, the high gloss brightwork give a yacht character.
The key to preserving bright work is to reapply the coating before it needs it, yes, before. Don’t let it start to crack and peel; you have waited too long. But for discussion sake, lets assume you are looking at an older trawler you are thinking of buying from me. The brightwork is not too far gone but needs a little TLC. Should you shy away from buying that trawler? No, not at all but lets talk about how we can get her back in shape.
The first matter we need to consider is whether we need to merely sand it down smooth or entirely remove the old finish.
If we need to get the old varnish totally off we need to go to our preferred hardware store and get a heat gun and a 2-3 inch metal putty knife; look in the paint department. This method is far better and faster than chemicals. And don’t even consider using a vibrating sander! Using the heat gun on full power, hold it about 4 inches from the surface at an angle, you’ll see the varnish soften and with a little help from your putty knife, it comes right off in long thin sheets. Be careful not to get too close or you will scorch the teak itself. When you have removed the varnish, sand with 120 and 220 sandpaper to get a smooth surface.
Ok, so what do we do if we do not need to remove all of the varnish?I did my yearly upkeep last weekend and here is the rundown. My boat has 94 feet of teak handrail to give you a feel of what we did and how long it took.
My choice of finish is Sikkens Cetol. It’s a synthetic varnish made especially for marine work by the same producer of Awlgrip .
Shopping List
Heat gun (if you are taking off the old varnish)
Sandpaper 120/220 grit
7-day blue painters tape
Mineral spirits
Tack rags
Soap
Step 1 – Cleaning the Teak
The first thing you want to do it get some soapy water and really clean the dirt off your teak. Get the grime off. Wipe it down and let it dry. Next, very important here, moisten a cloth with mineral spirits and wipe the teak down again. The solvent will remove any wax, grease or silicone that might be present. If you sand with these on the wood, you will really force the products into the wood
Prep Time – 30 minutes
Step 2 Preparation for Varnishing
After the brightwork is clean, we will need to roughen it up some to make the new varnish stick. Using medium grit sandpaper, 220 grit, we want to lightly scuff the surface of the finish. Not enough to go through to the wood mind you, but just to knock off the gloss and level the surface. Using a tack rag, remove all of the dust
Next, tape up any nearby metal to keep varnish away from those areas you do not need varnished. Use blue 7-day painter’s tape; it will save you lots of cleanup time later on.
Prep Time – 2 hours
in our next article, we’ll start our varnish application