Restoring the Teak, Re-bedding the Stanchions

 Bella Boo-Boo Houdini - Official Teaki Guardian on La Vida Dulce

For the last four years we've oiled our exterior wood trim with teak oil instead of using a varnish.  We really like the look of oiled teak and felt the maintenance was easier than dealing with varnish.  After our trip to Bermuda we discovered that teak oil doesn't hold up well to being bathed in salt water.  We've cleaned and oiled it several times since then but all along we knew that eventually we'd be refinishing the teak and using varnish.  The time has finally arrived to take this on.  With less than six months to go before we depart this job has risen to the top of the priority list.  If we leave in March 2015 I won't have much time or good weather to fool around with outside projects.  I do plan to have the boat hauled so we can paint the bottom but once that's done I want to head South.  So here it is halfway through October and I've finally decided to refinish the teak.

On our boat we have what's called a toe rail which forms a cap over the hull-to-deck joint.  It's made of 1"x 1" laminated teak and is about 5" wide on top and drops down the side about 3".  On the side of the cabin above the ports is a trim piece called an eyebrow that is made of 3/4" half-round teak.  This runs from the forward end of the cabin all the way aft to the back of the cockpit coaming on each side.  Since we knew we were going to be refinishing these parts we let the oil finish go, probably for too long.  The wood now looks black and grey and the grain is raised.

Before anything else could be done there's a bump strip that had to be removed from the side of the toe rail.  This is a rounded strip of stainless steel maybe a 1/2" wide that runs around the full perimeter of the boat and protects the teak from undue blemishes.  It's held on with wood screws about every 8" and whoever took this off the last time re-installed it with a variety of screws and stripped out about half of them.  Once I had this removed I found the wood underneath was about 1/16" higher than the surrounding surface due to previous re-finishes and was packed with dirt and crud.  I kinda got a notion at this point that the job was gonna snowball.

Because of the condition of the wood I decided to attack it first with a carbide scraper.  This is a handy tool with a long handle to give you leverage and a 2.5" wide carbide blade.  I shaved off the raised grain and ended up with a fairly clean surface.  This was a pretty laborious job though and it took all day last Sunday to complete just 3/4 of the toe rail and one eyebrow.

Since the port side was completed Cheri suggested we focus on that side and sand it down and get a coat of varnish on before taking on the starboard side.  Good idea.  A little variety makes the job much more bareable.  This past weekend (10/25) I started in by taping off around all the teak to prevent any damage to the surrounding fiberglass. I then went at it with an orbital sander using 60 grit paper.  The upper flat surface of the toe rail wasn't too bad but the 3" wide section going down the side of the hull was a bear.  Trying to apply pressure to grind down that 1/16" rise while hanging over the railing was not a job for an old geezer like me.  If the boat was on the hard it would be much easier to stand on a ladder and lean into it.  Because I was using an orbital sander there were parts of the toe rail where cleats and other fittings were mounted that had to be done by hand.  With the coarse sanding finished we sat back and looked over our work.  This picture shows the bowsprit under three phases of attack; weathered, sanded and varnished teak.

For as long as we've had the boat we've fought water leaks into the interior.  One on the port side is pretty severe and we always get water into the hanging locker in the main salon, which just happens to be Cheri's clothes locker.  It's bad enough that when we had carpet in the salon it would get soaked in that area.  There are several possible sources including the port window seal, life-line stanchions where they're through-bolted in the deck, and gaps in the laminated wood of the toe-rail.  I guess there could be other sources but I can't picture what they could be.

So, standing there looking at our beautiful sanding job we realized that this was the best time to take care of those water leaks.  The stanchions definitely needed to be re-bedded and removing them would make it easier to finish the toe-rail.  The life-lines also needed replacing so that was even more incentive.  Thus we have the true beginnings of our "snowball".  The bases of each stanchion are held on with four bolts that extend through the toe-rail and deck into the interior.  Most of them are backed with threaded backing plates but a few had plates and nuts which required two people for removal.  The base plates and bolts are packed with an adhesive/sealant called 5200 which is the most tenacious material known to man.  It made unscrewing the bolts a Herculean effort and cleaning the bases and wood of the stuff became the source of some salty new terminology.  With the stanchions off we took the time to polish them up like new and refurbish the reefing line blocks (see picture) that had been attached to them.  Snowball.

With the stanchions out of the way it was a simple matter to sand down the areas where they had been mounted.  We then used a two-part cleaner on the teak.  Using cheap foam brushes we applied Part A which instantly turned the teak dark brown.  After light scrubbing we went back with Part B and another light scrubbing which left the wood beautifully cleaned with a nice natural blond color.  Once the wood was all cleaned we went over it with 180 grit paper, sanding by hand.

On close inspection of the toe-rail I identified four places where the laminations had separated.  The gap was small, less than 1/16", but would need to be sealed up before applying the first coat of varnish.  I used a two part epoxy in a syringe to seal up the gap and let it sit for half a day to harden up.

I'm planning to re-bed the stanchions with 5200 and I know it'll seal much better to natural wood than it would to varnish.  I'm in a conflict now though.  The weather report is calling for rain in 24 hours and lasting for two days.  If I don't get a coat of varnish on this wood it'll start to go grey on me and I'll hafta clean it and sand it again.  I've come too far for that so I taped off the areas where the stanchions get mounted.  With the stanchion held in place with two bolts I ran a razor blade around the base.  Removing the stanchion I peeled away the outside edge of the tape and now had the base area taped off and could put on my coat of varnish which would have a full 24 hours of drying time.  After the rain I can get the stanchions mounted to bare wood and put a second coat of varnish on the toe rail that will also seal the edges of the stanchion base.  By the time we get the fifth coat of varnish on we should have everything sealed up pretty well.  This shot shows the taped off areas for several stanchions.  It also shows how much it opened up the toe rail by removing them.  Compare it to the previous picture, same location.

Originally we were going to use Cetol which is not a varnish but a "wood treatment".  It's an alkyd resin with UV absorbing pigments which make it translucent, not quite clear.  We have Cetol on our cockpit coaming and it looks nice and holds up well but has a glossy orange kinda look to it, not quite natural.  Because it's translucent it doesn't show the full grain of the teak either.  I went as far as buying a can of Cetol but in the middle of the night I woke up thinking varnish is the only way to go.  The next day I took the Cetol back and got a can of Epifanes high gloss varnish.  As I laid down the first coat I knew I had made the right choice.  Epifanes gives the teak a nice golden glow.  Five coats of that will have a traditional high class look.  Perfect!  After all this work I wouldn't want anything less.

Update 11-12-14:
Here it is more than three weeks since I began refinishing the teak and I'm still not anywhere near being done.  The varnish takes a full 24 hours in between coats and time becomes a major factor.  We have four good coats on the Port side, three across the stern but only two on the Starboard side.  I only have weekends for this and weather has been a problem.  Between the rain and cold/damp weather I feel like I'm fighting a losing battle.

This past weekend I had five full days to play.  I'm normally off Friday through Sunday and Veterans Day fell on a Tuesday so I took Monday off to take advantage of a streak of nice weather.  Friday through Sunday were clear but the temperatures barely got above 50 degrees.  Friday and part of Saturday I sanded and cleaned the teak on the Starboard side from the bowsprit back to the gate near the cockpit.  I got one coat of varnish down late in the afternoon and it looked good.  Sunday I had to wait until later in the afternoon to lay down a second coat because it was still a bit tacky.  I added a coat across the stern while I waited.  I finished the starboard side coat by 1600 and called it a day.  Monday I got up early and went out to see how things looked.  All the varnish I had laid down on Sunday was fogged and patchy looking.  All of it.  Ugh!  I envisioned having to strip everything back down to bare wood and starting all over again.  I'm running out of time though and really cold weather is right around the corner.

I Googled "fogged varnish" and found that it's caused by the varnish not having enough time to "flash off" and dry before dew settles on it.  According to Wikipedia "The dew point is the saturation temperature for water in air. The dew point is associated with relative humidity. A high relative humidity implies that the dew point is closer to the current air temperature. Relative humidity of 100% indicates the dew point is equal to the current temperature and that the air is maximally saturated with water".  When varnishing, the dew point must be at least 20 degrees less than the air temperature or you're gonna have problems.  At least that's what I read.  On Sunday the air temperature was around 51 degrees and I suspect the dew point was around 40 or higher.  I read on and found that the finish can be saved by scuffing the surface to allow the trapped moisture to evaporate.  Of course this requires warm temperatures.  Fortunately the temperatures for Monday and Tuesday were forecast to be in the 60's and clear.  Perfect!

Monday morning Cheri and I talked ourselves into stripping down the teak on the cockpit coaming so everything would be done at the same time.  I sanded down my fogged varnish and let it sit all day while we worked on the coaming.  I figured things would be perfect by Tuesday for laying down a coat of varnish and having everything protected before bad weather settled in around the middle of the week.  While Cheri sanded the coaming I worked on re-bedding the stanchions.

Before laying down any varnish on the Port side I had taped off the areas where the stanchions mount.  Now with four coats down I had to run a blade around the edge of the tape to remove it but underneath I found clean and bare wood.  Next I taped off the same spot and re-traced the base of the stanchion.  This time I removed the tape inside the cut and left the outer area covered.  Now when I install the stanchion the sealant can ooze out onto the tape and not ruin my beautiful teak.  Cheri had already polished up four of the stanchions and had them ready to go.  I squeezed 5200 adhesive all over the bottom of the base and up inside the stanchion a few inches, ran the bolts into place and lightly screwed them into position with just enough pressure to have the sealant push out all around the stanchion base.  I wanted to let the adhesive cure first before going back and tightening them down all the way to get a really good seal.  With Cheri's help I got all four stanchions re-bedded.  Once we get the rest of the stanchions installed I'll replace the life lines. We've decided to go with bare stainless wire instead of the white plastic coated stuff.  We're also replacing the life lines around the cockpit with hard stainless railing.  I have all the parts I need for that on hand so that project is ready to take off.  The hard railing will make a better place to mount our grill and the table we use for cleaning fish.  We'll be able to sit on our newly refinished teak coaming (maybe on a towel or something) and cook up that Mahi-mahi we just caught.  Can't wait!

Tuesday I had some touch-up sanding to do on the coaming so I took care of that before starting the varnish.  It was still kinda chilly out and after suffering the fogged varnish I wanted to wait for things to warm up a little more anyway.  Around 1000 I was ready to go at it and collected my brush and can of varnish and headed for the bowsprit.  I just happened to glance out towards the breakwater and discovered a wall of fog quickly descending on our creek.  Fog = high dew point, maximum saturation, 100% humidity.  Grrrrrrr.  I can't believe this!  I put away my varnishing gear and moved on to my next project.  Unfortunately I may be done with varnishing for quite a while.  Winter is coming on strong and temperatures are projected to be in the low 40's and 30's for at least the next week.  If I could just get a few more coats on it'd probably be OK for the Winter but I think even that's gonna be a challenge.

Update 11-17-14:
In the continuing saga of the fogged varnish we left off last Tuesday with weather frustration.  Fog had rolled in and ruined my plans to repair the work that had been damaged by dew.  On Friday I got back to it.  I went over it again with 180 grit paper, wiped it down and crossed my fingers.  I had checked the weather and found that temperatures were going to be hovering right around 40 degrees F.  That's not really ideal varnishing weather and I had heard reports that you don't want to lay down a coat if it's colder than 50 out.  Well, that may be but I'm feeling kinda desperate here, mightily pressed for time and I'm concerned that if I don't get a few more coats on then the long cold winter will destroy what I've already done.  The whole point of doing the teak this Fall was to reduce the amount of work that I'll have to do next March.  So I gave this some thought and figured I wouldn't have much to lose if it didn't work out.  What really pushed me on was the fact that the dew point on Friday was at 17 degrees F and was supposed to stay more than 20 degrees below the air temperature all day.  I had read somewhere that this was the magic formula, 20 degrees of separation.

I got started at 1100 when the air temperature got above 40 and finished by 1400.  I was just finishing up the bowsprit when I realized I couldn't hold the brush any longer.  I pushed on and finished but  I was shivering uncontrollably and babbling like an idiot.  Hey, be nice! Got my brush cleaned up and called it a day.  It took me until that evening to finally thaw out.

That night I had nightmares about ruined varnish and stripping down teak in the snow.  I finally rolled out of bed around 0600 but it was still dark out, too dark to see if the teak had survived.  Finally around 0730 I went out and checked it out.  It came out fine.  The 20 degree magic formula worked.  I can't describe how relieved I was.  The surface was still kinda tacky so I decided to leave it alone, let it cure completely.  Rain was called for on Sunday so I was pretty much done with varnish for the weekend.

I sat out in the cockpit for a few hours with a heating pad under my butt and polished and installed two more stanchions.  This completes the re-bedding on the port side.  The four other stanchions on that side were done last week so I ran a razor blade around the bases of those and cleaned them up.  They came out looking pretty good.  The next coat of varnish will help to seal the bases but I wouldn't get that done before the next rain so I covered them over with masking tape.  Be a bummer to have the teak turn black after all this work.  I still need to order the stainless wire for the life-lines but I do have the tubing and fittings for the hard railing around the cockpit.  Maybe I'll get started on that next Friday.

Next weekend the forecast is not prime for Friday but I may be able to get another coat of varnish done on Saturday.  The air temperature will be around 41 but the dew point will be way down at 13.  It'll be like that for most of the day so there should be enough time to lay down another coat and have it start to set before the conditions deteriorate.  Perfect!

Since this teak project has taken over my life I've been re-thinking my goals.  I had wanted to get eight coats on but realistically five would get me through the winter.  I've got four coats on already down the port side and across the stern.  There's three from the stern up to the side gate and two coats from there up to the bowsprit.  I'm pretty sure I can get five coats on all around before I turn into a pop sickle.  Then next March I'll be able to lay down three more to finish it up while the boat's out of the water for fresh bottom paint.