The exterior wood on Sugar Shack is all teak.  It looks super lovely when it is well cared for.  For the most part, we can scrub it clean, then either oil or stain it to preserve and protect the wood from the sea, salt, and sun.  However, every few years we need to scrub it, sand it down, remove all prior coats of oil or stain and start from scratch.

Teak turns a white/gray color after being exposed to the sun with no oil or stain.  It is ok looking, but not something that I prefer.  Plus, it is hard on the wood because there is nothing protecting it so it does not last as long.

So, I get down to business.  There is lots of teak on Sugar Shack. This post will solely focus on exterior wood.  We have teak trim (5) along each helm station, (2) teak safety handles, (2) teak trim pieces over small hatches, (3) teak pieces of trim along the bimini, (2) teak hand rails, 2 teak hatch covers, (3) teak covers on each of the 2 sugar scoops, and (2) teak seats on the princess seats at the bow.  It’s lots of prep-work, sanding, and sealing.

Princess Seats

At the bow we have two princess seats which are fun to sit in during calm passages or sundowners.  The wood is screwed into a stainless-steel plate.  Sounds easy enough, simply unscrew it, right?  Well not really.  But it does come off.  These seats have deep ridges which have collected the stain over the years.  The seats have direct sun, sea, and salt coverage all day, every day.  So, they needed extra love.

First photo shows you current state, 2^nd photo shows you the cleaned and sanded state, 3^rd photo shows you half stained, last photo is finished.

The completed starboard princess seat:

Oh $hit Bars

We have two well used oh $hit bars in the cock pit. We call them that because you often grab them when sea conditions become bad.  They are truly safety bars.  There is one on the ceiling and one just above the cabin entrance.

Ceiling bar is grabbed a lot and has a combination of human oil, dirt, sun, and salt.  It was a mess and needed a good sanding.  I did not get a “before” shot, but below is a sanded, fresh stain, and final look.

The safety bar on the ceiling also gets used a lot and has curves that are very difficult to reach.  I destroyed a lot of pieces of sand paper trying to get to the curved areas.  The 6 images below show before and after. 

The left images are before and the right are after.

Here is the final version looking gorgeous.

Teak Trim Over Hatches

We have two small hatches that both lead to cabins.  The teak trim is a barrier to help prevent water and stuff from entering the open hatch.  Here is a before, middle, and final photo:

Helm Station Teak

We have two helm stations.  Each one has two pieces of teak trim along the seat.  The starboard helm also has an additional teak bar at the bottom of the seat.  This wood gets a lot of direct sun and salt.

It is hard to tell in these photos, but here is the before and after of the starboard helm seat.

The boat was a total mess with dust and soot everywhere for several days.  It just could not be helped with the sanding and all the wind.

Bimini and Cabin Top Hand Rails

The teak rails along the bimini and cabin top take a lickin!  Not only do they have full exposure to the sun, sea, and salt but they also get rubbed raw from the jib sheets (lines).  The lines rub and rub and wear the stain off leaving unattractive marks.  Left before and right after

The cabin top has two long hand rails running along the port and starboard side.  They too get rubbed by the same jib sheets.  Left before and right after.

Cockpit Hatches

The cockpit hatches get a lot of dirty feet walking all over them. Plus they get lots of dirt and grime being located in the cockpit.  We had scrubbed them weeks ago and did not put any oil on them so they turned a gray color.  Before shots of the sugar scoops (top 2 photos) and cockpit hatches (bottom two photos).

Sugar Scoops

We have two sugar scoops (steps that lead up the transom of the boat to the cockpit).  Each set of sugar scoops has 3 steps.  They get lots of dirt, salt, sun, and sea.  The starboard is used more frequently as this is where we get on and off the boat.

Additional Projects

Our outboard has been giving us some problems.  She does not like to go in revers.  Matt has looked at and worked on the shifting mechanism but nothing seems to work. He would get it working then it would stop.  Looks like it will take some more time.

The handles on the dinghy have needed some love.  I put duct tape on them thinking that it would strengthen them, but that only made a huge mess!  Note to self, don’t use duct tape on anything in the sun.  So, I made new covers using sunbrella fabric and velcro.

A leak at the bow.  We have had water get into the bow peaks for awhile now. We could never find the source.  Matt decided to take apart the mount for the gang plank and in doing so found two possible areas where water can sneak in.  Of course this turned out to be a much bigger project than he though.  First, we have to take everything out of the bow peak locker (2-bean bags, 3-sails, 2-folding chairs, luggage, noodles, old salon cushions, 2-SUPs, 4-water jugs)  Yep we can fit a lot in the bow peaks!

Events from this blog post occurred during the second week of June, 2021.  Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind our adventures.