Tag Archives: teak wood

Varnish, Varnish, Varnish

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Varnish is a very repetitive process and it requires a LOT of patience which I have very little of.  These projects try my very last bit of sanity, but I got it all done over several weeks.  Over the years, we have put oil and stain on our exterior teak wood.  We have teak on our 2 cockpit hatches, 6 steps on the sugar scoops, hand rails along the cabin top, rails on all 4 sides of the bimini, 2 princess seats, and 8 pieces in the cockpit.  Lots of teak.   If you are a cruiser, you will notice I did not mention the teak toe rail as there is no way in he!! I will touch those.

Matt has wanted to varnish the wood for a long time and every time I go to stain or oil any of the teak he complains.  So, I finally agree to try my hand at varnishing.

Varnish / Awl Wood

We have talked about varnishing some of our teak pieces for years.  But varnishing is time consuming and takes a lot of patience (which I don’t have).  Now that we are in the yard and we removed the bimini hand rail and the cabin top hand rails we’ve decided it was time to give it a whirl.

Project 1 of 3 Varnishing  Projects are the (2) hand rails that run along our cabin top (about 12′ or 3.5m), (2) aft bimini rails and a flag pole.

Sanding, Sanding, and More Sanding

The first step is sanding several times with 80 grit then sanding several more times until all of the old stain and groves are gone.  Then you follow it up with more sanding using 120 grit sand paper which smoothes the surface further.   

Removal of All Dust Particles 

Then I wipe everything down with MEK (some heavy duty nasty stuff to remove the dust particles).

Primer

Next step I apply Awl Grip / Awl Wood Primer.  The yard informed me that I should be using a new bucket and brush for each step and each coat, so I did (seems wasteful). 

The primer goes on smoothly and turns the wood a rich, beautiful color.  This is a clear primer so we were surprised at how dark it made the wood.  Can you see the long cabin hand rails hanging from the metal boat support?

Applying Awlwood Gloss

Once the primer was dry (24hrs) I applied the first coat of Awlwood gloss.  You can either apply one coat each 24hrs and then sand down, apply MEK, then apply 2nd coat or you can try multi coating in a single day.  Guess which one I tried — multi-coating (lack of patience, remember).  I was only able to apply 2 coats in the first day.  So, the next day I had to hand sand each piece with 320 grit paper before starting the next 3 coats.

Once these dry for 24 hours I sanded them all again with 600 grit paper and put on the final 6th coat.

Project 2: More Varnishing

I also varnished the (2) cockpit handholds, two teak hatch frames, and the teak on both helm seats.  There were years of layers of stain on these pieces of wood.  I would do a light sanding before staining, but they had not been taken down to the raw wood in ages.

And now they are beautiful and shiny.  For some reason the wood looks more red than it is in realy life.  The wood color is more like the lower left photo.

You’ve Got to Be Kidding?

One day after Matt installed our beautiful new varnished hand rails along the cabin top, I stop to take a photo and notice something horrible!  The teak around the sides and front of the bimini are simply awful looking with old stain.  And on top of that the small teak rail along the cabin top (just below it) looked crappy too.  And since I had the varnish out again, we decided to do the two princess seats and the teak backing to our wench handle holders.  Great, varnish project #3!  Keep in mind it started out with one piece and now has blossomed into 18 pieces!

The teak rail along the bimini top can’t be removed (unlike the aft portion of the rail) so it makes it very difficult to sand.  Most of it has to be done by hand.  This is the same case for the rail along the cabin top.  This project has truly destroyed my hands, nails, and back!  I am upside down a lot trying to get the pieces that are seen from the cockpit.  

I was so irritated that I started sanding without taking any before photos, but trust me the wood needed either stain or varnish.

Sanding

Man oh man this was difficult to sand these pieces.  Most of the trim was near our non-skid (which really hurts the hands when you hit it), gelcoat which scratches easily from the sand paper, a metal rail (painful on the hands) and or screws, bolts, knobs.  You can see from the top photo that the bimini rail and the small rail below it had to be varnished to match the beautiful hand rails along the cabin top.

The two princess seats really need new teak but it is not in the cards yet.  Maybe when we get to Indonesia.  So, we sand down the old stain and do our best to make these seats look better.  Here is the raw wood.

Back to the Process

A good swipe of MEK is applied to remove all dust particles and anything that might muck up the varnish.  Primer is applied and then 24hrs later the varnish process begins.  Awlgrip’s product Awlwood allows you to either multi-coat or apply one coat every 24hrs with a sanding in between coats.  I couldn’t possibly sand 6 more times. So I decided to try multi-coating again which only requires 2 more sanding sessions.

The end product came out nice, not my favorite and certainly not my best work, but it will do for now.  I am not a varnish person. I don’t like doing it and I am not a fan of the end result.  But Matt likes it so there is that.  Just not sure who will redo all of this in 5 years when it starts to look ratty???

The front section that is flat was fairly easy to do despite the non-skid and gel coat issues.  But the insde was tricky with the rails, the ledges, the uneven surfaces.  You see this from the inside of the cockpit (bottom right photo).  This kept getting loads of bubbles which required more sanding.  Truly a beastly job.

After what seemed like months of sanding and varnishing (it reality it was weeks), everything has been varnished (except the toe rails).  

Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind actual live events.  This blog occured in early December while we were on the hard in Norsand Boatyard.  Don’t miss out on some of the beastly projects we got completed in the yard in our last blog post.

Teak Love

Teak Love and Care

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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.