Painting Exterior Teak

[oldragbaggers]

Becky and Lance:

Given your substantial restoration efforts with your Cape Dory 33, have you given any thought to replacing the really deteriorated teak with new teak and then varnish or teak oil or Cetol Marine Natural Teak (my favorite) instead of painting it

By replacing the deteriorated teak you will return her to her natural beauty. For me at least, part of the classic beauty of a Cape Dory sailboat is the use of teak.

Just a thought.

Roberto, to be honest we tried to think of everything to avoid doing this, but it's just ALL in too bad of shape. If it were just a bad patch here and there it would be one thing. The boat's owner walked away from it 6 years ago. It has been uncovered and unprotected in the brutal Maryland winters and summers ever since. At the time he left I am assuming that the wood needed refinishing because he had taped it off with blue tape. That is how it sat. This is what that taped off wood looked like when we bought it.



And the cockpit coamings, although severly weathered, are not the worst of it. We spent several weekends trying to get all that blackened tape off the boat. We thought it was duct tape because it was so difficult to remove, but it was just blue tape that had baked on for 6 years.

On the aft starboard quarter the rubrail had come off. When they screwed it back on instead of bunging the holes they filled them with this horrible red rubber sealant. I pulled on it and dug at it and there is no way to get it all loose from the wood so that a bung would ever go in nicely again so I have to drill the holes out oversize to get rid of it and then fill them and drill them out again. Either that or get a new piece made, about 10 feet of it.

To be honest with you, about the only wood on the whole boat that's in pretty good shape is the dorade boxes. But that is only because they were covered with canvas, at least until the covers rotted away.



To "return her to her natural beauty" as you say, we really would have to replace it all (except those dorade boxes), which is what I have been saying we cannot afford to do, either in terms of money or time.

[Astronomertoo]

Roberto,
I am with you on this one. I used to keep my boats with sanded raw teak outside, with flat satin inside, but eventually fell in love with the clear varnished teak outside. I used to spend too much time with the Deks Olje 1 and 2, but to me it was worth it.
I will be paying the price in pain on this boat, which is still in the shed, when I start sanding off the ugly red mohogany stain the previous owner had his paid farm hand put on all my exterior wood. He also did some white I need to remove before starting over outside.
We all have our preferences, and mine is more traditional. I will do the same for the new interior trim and bulkheads, in satin varnish, and since this will be my last boat, I will try to do it the way I like it.
BTW, what was the boat anchored at Bermuda with the nice cockit covers that looked a lot like Lin and Larry Pardey's Serifyn? Nice radar too!
Bob C

[John Stone]

Fear not. I don't see a thing wrong with painting your cockpit coaming, or any other wood on your boat for that matter. I think it is very seaman like to paint exterior wood. I would however caution you from using too much epoxy and coating all the wood with it. Wood really should be able to move and breath, etc and epoxy is not really all that good for wood as a general rule. I just don't think you gain anything by coating wood . . . especially teak with epoxy. There are exceptions of course . . . and as long as you have thought it through who cares what anyone else thinks. It's your boat. We also eliminated the eye brow trim on our boat and were glad to have it gone as well as the 28 leaky holes per side that went with it.

If you are not determined to paint dado brown, I think white coamings could look very nice, especially if you topped them with a 3/4" teak cap rail. That way you are not trying to make it look like something it is not. Leave the teak cap bare. Make the teak about 1/8" wider on each side than the coaming. It's a simple project as far as wood work goes. Nice contrast and it keeps some wood visible, to assuage your nautical psyche, and it also will protect the vulnerable top edge of the painted coaming. You can step on it and lines can run across it too. Very protective. Our coamings are varnished, true, but we protect them with the bare teak cap. In fact I taped today in preparation for a couple of coats of varnish on our expose wood. Not a lot of fun and so I certainly cheer you forward to paint as required. I can send you a link on how we installed the cap rail if you are interested. Good luck.

[casampson]

I think painting the teak is a great idea. If it were my boat, I might try experimenting with two or three different compatible colors, the way they paint the trim on Victorian houses. It could turn out to be beautiful. I admire your bravery for posting your intentions in the first place. Good luck.