Tag Archives: teak repair

Back in the Boatyard

Leave a reply

We are back on the hard in Norsand Boatyard.  What, you are probably asking, “why?”  Well, we had a lot of little things we needed to do – each individually would not warrant a haul out, but together they did.

Boatyard Projects on the List

  • Reburnish the Coppercoat (due to our barnacle incident)
  • Fix small gelcoat damage (another boat ran into our starboard bow)
  • Water Tanks: Scrape, clean, and repaint interior 
  • Repair Teak on both Sugar Scoops 
  • Wax the hulls and stern

Haul out

Hauling your home out of its natural environment and onto a trailer is always nerve racking.  However, Kevin and Shayne at Norsand Boatyard are experts and they truly take every precaution to ensure our home is safe. 

Coppercoat

We applied fresh Coppercoat in late December 2023 and had a massive issue 6 weeks later after being in a barnacle infested river.  Coppercoat UK and the local NZ Coppercoat distributor agreed to reburnish the bottom of our boat. This particular task requires us to be out of the water so the boatyard can sand the entire bottom with 320 grit sand paper.  

I will say that we rock!  Why do you ask?  Well, we spent days in the freezing cold water scraping and cleaning our bottom and it looks so much better than other boats with barnacles on their Coppercoat.  I took a photo of a monohull that had similar barnacle problems to us (lower right photo).  As you can see they were not as successful at removing the “feet” of the barnacles (little white spots) as we were.  And another boat with Coppercoat who stayed in the barnacle infested water for over 6 months had a reef with baby eels falling off of it when she hauled out (lower left photo).

Sugar Shack bottom at haul out (top) and another boat after haul out (bottom), both with Coppercoat.  Yep, we did good.  

Coppercoat Repair

Once we were out of the water, we noticed an area that has 4 spots that are down to the barrier coat – that is not good.  So we have to address this issue.

Conor fills the spots with filler and Coppercoat.  It needs a sanding, then it is ready to be burnished with the rest of the bottom.

Burnsing the Coppercoat

Right before we splash, the yard comes back to burnish the Coppercoat with 320 grit sandpaper.  Not sure what I expected, but honestly, I was surprised that the bottom turned back to copper color after the boys (Ian and Shamus) burnished it.  It was soooo smooth.

It even had a shiny penny look when the sun hit it.

Hit by another Boat

Another boat hits us while we were docked at Town Basin Marina.  It was rather an unfortunate occurrence but the damage was minimal.  This other boat was trying to squeeze in front of us and claimed he had bow thrusters.  He had bow thrusters, but they did not work.  The tide was pretty strong and carried his boat side ways causing the stern of his boat, with his dinghy and dinghy outboard to scratch the inside starboard bow.

Aaron from Norsand Boat yard came out to give us an estimate and the other boat owner, begrudgingly paid us the $1500NZ that it cost to repair our boat.

While we were at it we had the boatyard finish a job they forgot to complete last time.  They missed cleaning up the repair around the port cleat (the cleat goes where the 3 holes are) the repair was the cracks around the cleat.

Water Tanks

Our two water tanks hold about 400L of water each and are built into the boat.  When the boat was built, the manufacturer used some sort of weird potable paint that has not held up well.  For several years it has been peeling away and clogging up our filters.  Matt has drained the tanks, scraped the excess paint off, and vacuumed up the mess several times.  But, it was beyond time for us to completely clean out the tanks and repaint them with special non-toxic potable paint.

The white or light specs are actually pieces of chipped paint.  Now don’t completely freak out because we do have several filters for each water tank (which holds 400L).  So the water goes through each filter before coming to the taps.

This is such a huge project that I decided to write a separate blog about it so I can include more of the details (in case any of our other fellow cruisers need to do this too).  See upcoming blog post “Disgusting Water Tank.”

Repairing the Teak on our Sugar Scoops

The teak on both the port and starboard sugar scoops has had a long, challenging life span in direct sun light, constantly covered in salt water and enduring heavy usage.  We try to be diligent with its care but it is completely exposed to salt water, sun and constant use.  We’ve replaced the teak about 8-9 years ago, but it time to do a temporary repair until we can replace them again (it is a long and expensive process so we want to squeeze as much life out of these sugar scoops as we can).

As you can see, the black caulking has come up and is completely missing in some places. It is time to repair it all.

I watched several YouTube videos and pulled Matt in to help.  This is turning out to be a much larger job than we anticipated. So, the details of the teak repair will be coming out in an upcoming blog called “Caulking the Sugar Scoops Teak” stay tuned.

Waxing the Boat

Ian, aka “Stretch” comes in to wax our boat and make her as shiny as possible (considering her gelcoat is thin and old).  He always does such a great job.

While we were working on the sugar scoops we had to get on and off the boat with a very tall (15 steps) ladder which was such a pain in the arse!  Luckily it was only for 2 of the 6 weeks we were here.

As you can see we made the most of this haul out in the boat yard.  We were anxious to get back in the water as we prepare to head to a new country, Vanuatu.

Our blog posts run several weeks behind actual live events.  This blog post occurred late April 2024. We enjoy some rough housing during the stock car races in Whangarei.

Teak Love

Teak Love and Care

Leave a reply

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

Princess Seats at the bow of the boat

Princess Seats at the bow of the boat

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.

 
Safety Bar

Safety Bar

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:

Trim over hatch

Trim over hatch

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.

Helm seat trim

Helm seat trim

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

Starboard Helm Seat

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

Bimini Hand Rails

Bimini Hand Rails

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.

Cabin top hand rails

Cabin top hand rails

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.

Dinghy Handle Covers

Dinghy Handle Covers

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.