Teak Guard experiences?

[Don Sargeant]

My beautiful golden teak is turning black (of course). I read about a synthetic product called Teak Guard. Does anyone have any experience with it?
Don Sargeant
~~COQUINA~~
CD25D #189
Greenwich Cove



don@cliggott.com

[Anthony P. Jeske]

Don:
Most of the Cape Dory owners have switched to Sikkens Cetol. I too, went down the path of "magic" teak treatments which lasted all of thirty days, then to varnish which lasted three-fourths of the season and finally, and happily, to Cetol, which lasts MORE than a season.
In addition to the compliments you'll receive, you'll spend more time sailing and less time on brightwork.
Good Luck,
Tony



ajeske@ixpres.com

[Bill]

My beautiful golden teak is turning black (of course). I read about a synthetic product called Teak Guard. Does anyone have any experience with it?
Don Sargeant
~~COQUINA~~
CD25D #189
Greenwich Cove

I agree with Tony. I used some other type stuff on the teak on my C-27 and it did not last but a few months at best! I have finally completed the entire boat (The toe/rub rails were a bear!) with cetol (the coamings hand rails and companionway are now one year old, and I will touch them up as I can), and the boat looks great (IMHO).

For cleaning the teak I used a household cleaner called "Zud" which contains Oxolyic (sp) acid and man is it clean the teak. My teak had never been treated however. Probably would not work on teak that had been treated, though it would be worth a try as the product costs less than $3. Afterward, use Cetol (IMHO).

Bill



cd225d@rhapsodysails.com

[John Schwartz]

I also have a 25D. Her teak has been finished with Cetol, however some of it is getting past its prime. Related to the teak finish, I have two questions.

What preparation do I need before applying more Cetol (there are some bare spots showing)?

What are the pros and cons of Cetol vs plain old teak oil? Some of the old salts around here have rigs with teak oil and they claim they only reoil once a season.



john_schwaartz@gstworld.net

[Mike Everett]

This year I completely redid the teak on Dr. Pepper with three coats of Armada, which is similar to Cetol. I've noticed some minor gray scuff marks on the rubrail below the hawse chocks (we're on a mooring), and a few tiny (maybe a couple of millimeters in diameter) gray spots on one of the cabintop handrails. I assume I had missed these when I applied the stain. When Armada (and Cetol, I assume) starts to wear it exposes the teak to bleaching, thus the gray color.
I found these surfaces were fix with a quick rub with a Scotchbrite pad and a touchup with the Armada stain.
Personally, I can't imagine that teak oil would last a whole season, or look as good as Cetol or Armada.
BTW, I think Armada looks a bit nicer -- it's not so brown and opaque as the Cetol.



everett@megalink.net

[Don Sargeant]

Guys,
I know the pros and cons of most teak protection products, but there have been no posts I'm aware of about this particular one. I don't like the coated and colored look of Cetol - It's another varnish to me albeit with less maintenace than Epiphanes. The oil I was using looked really spectacular, but only lasted two months. I doubt this new stuff is the holy grail of coatings but I swore I'd never varnish again after twenty years of trying to maintain mahogany brightwork. As for most owners switching to Cetol, only one of the six CD owners in Greenwich Cove use it and he was drooling over the look of my oiled teak when it was first done.
I'll post details of my adventure with Teak Guard when I get around to putting it on.
Thanks for your comments,
Don Sargeant
~~COQUINA~~

Don:
Most of the Cape Dory owners have switched to Sikkens Cetol. I too, went down the path of "magic" teak treatments which lasted all of thirty days, then to varnish which lasted three-fourths of the season and finally, and happily, to Cetol, which lasts MORE than a season.
In addition to the compliments you'll receive, you'll spend more time sailing and less time on brightwork.
Good Luck,
Tony

don@cliggott.com

[John]

My beautiful golden teak is turning black (of course). I read about a synthetic product called Teak Guard. Does anyone have any experience with it?
Don Sargeant
~~COQUINA~~
CD25D #189
Greenwich Cove

Don,
I used to be in the marine service business and back around 1990 I was at the Miami Boat Show and the TeakGuard people had a display booth and were demonstrating the product on miscellaneous teak parts. They also had parts finished with TeakGuard on display. Well to make a long story short a lot of my customers down here in Florida's weather conditions were looking for a "quick and easy" teak finish that had a decent appearance and went on easily and was easy to clean up and simple to maintain. At the time many people were using a teak product that looked like orange latex paint, I can't remember the name of the stuff, but it was popular for awhile, someone reading this probably knows its name. I believe it's still on the market. At any rate TeakGuard was fabulous stuff by comparison. There were two parts to the TeakGuard process. One step was a acid based cleaner that was pretty strong. The other part was the TeakGuard solution itself. The solution is a single part product that comes in a translucent plastic bottle with a squirt cap. It was fairly costly. The TeakGuard itself is quite thin in consistency, almost like water. It was neccessary to vigorously shake the plastic bottle before use and during use because the components would settle to the bottom quickly.I used to purchase it by the case. I did quite a few boats with it. We used to apply it to freshly sanded and cleaned teak. It was applied with a foam brush applicator, the ones with the wooden handle not the plastic handled ones, to prevent introducing air bubbles into the finish. It was extremely fast and easy to apply. It was just like applying teak oil. Several coats were applied. You could easily do a CD30 in a day or less. The color wasn't too bad, sort of the color of cleaned teak with a tan-goldish translucent coating in effect with a satin finish. The teak grain being slightly covered. Not ugly like some of the stuff on the market. Any drips, runs, splashes on deck or equipment cleans right up with water before it dries and laquer thinner after it dries.

It's longevity totally depended on the amount of coats. I know of one boat that had about 6 coats on it and no one ever touched it for about five years, the results were interesting. Most of the flat horizontal surfaces lost most of the finish, vertical surfaces still had a lot of the finish remaining, shaded areas had most of the finish still intact. The big problem noticed was that the finish bled onto surrounding surfaces apparently from being aged and the constant exposure to rain and dampness down here in Florida. My guess would be that the sun broke down the sealing surface and then the pigments began to leach out of the coating and spread with the help of rain water and dew. BUT.... the leached staining came right off with laquer thinner and/or a boat cleaner with an oxalic acid componet. Keep in mind this particular boat's teak had not been taken care of for years after the orignal coats of TeakGuard had been applied.

In essence I would say it's a decent product, extremely easy to apply, very easy to remove, looks pretty nice, protects well, extremely easy to maintain. I think the majority of boaters would be very pleased with it. The varnish types like myself would still opt for a true finish like Epifanes, Awlgrip, Clipper Clear, Captains 1015, etc.
If you like the look of the pigmented synthetic finishes you will be quite pleased with the look of TeakGuard. I applied it to many vessels and the owners were very pleased with the results. I don't use it on my CD because I'm not a fan of the look of TeakGuard, Cetol and other similar finishes.

To bad you didn't post your message a few weeks ago, I just gave away about a case and a half of the stuff, I left it at the marina in case anyone wanted to use it. I would have sent you a bottle.