A horrible job...

[OldBawley]

Our boat is wood. The old deck was 1” pine tongue in groove covered with painted sailcloth.
Later, someone put ½ inch ply over the wood and then fibreglass.
When I bought the boat it was used as a semi professional shrimp fishing boat the fibreglass deck was handy. However it is not the best for a wooden deck. Heavy loads, everything moves, the fibreglass breaks, leaks and rot.
First thing in the restoration was to put 1/2” teak on top of the new marine ply. Bedded in Sikaflex and screwed. The deck is now 2” wood, on top teak. All sealed in Coelan. An 65 year old boat that is sailed all year takes some strain. To keep the deck watertight, the Coelan is perfect.
If the 1mm thick coat of Coelan would be punctured, there is the 1/2” teak, then there is the 2 mm polyurethane bedding, then comes the 1/2” marine ply, followed by 2mm of polyurethane bedding, after witch comes the 1” wooden deck. No way this leaks.
On a fibreglass boat, teak decks are cosmetic. If it was my boat, the teak would go. Some yachts have the teak bedded in polyurethane, others are screwed. Some are screwed into a sandwich deck.
Hundreds of leaking holes. Eeeek. Take it off.
Teak is OK for wooden boats, on a plastic yacht it is a very expensive pain in the **s.
To have a fibreglass boat with a teak deck AND sealed with Coelan would be double stupid expensive.

 

[Twister_Ken]

Can I add my name to the been-there-done-that crowd. The good thing was it was only 28 feet, and only the decks, no coachroof. Everything else was bad. I elected to take the old stuff off myself, then have it professionally replaced, screwless. A nice job when finished and I'm sure the new owner doesn't appreciate what he's got. New boat only has teak on the cockpit seats.

 

[BrianH]

On a fibreglass boat, teak decks are cosmetic. If it was my boat, the teak would go. Some yachts have the teak bedded in polyurethane, others are screwed. Some are screwed into a sandwich deck.
...
Teak is OK for wooden boats, on a plastic yacht it is a very expensive pain in the **s.

I fully agree, it's a pretentious affectation. I've posted this before but it deserves repeating. George Cuthbertson, yacht designer and co-founder of the prestigous Canadian yacht designers and builders C&C, memorably once said in an interview:

"The market has been brought up to believe that teak means tradition. Nothing is further from the truth. Everybody talks about a teak deck as the ultimate. Before the war a teak deck was unheard of except on a sampan. A builder like Herreshoff or Nevins would never use a teak deck - it's far too heavy for decking. They'd use a long-leaf yellow pine or another wood native to North America, not an enormously heavy lumber that comes all the way from the Orient. This business about teak is not true but the public has been told it's true."​

In my Italian marina is a retired Rassy employee who was working in the company at the time of the phase-over from wooden boats to fibreglass and was with them when the company became Hallberg-Rassy on moving into the old Hallberg premises on the island of Ellös in 1972 where the two boat builders had been competitors until Harry Hallberg retired.

What he told me was that the company had serious problems laying teak decks on fibreglass, eventually deciding that there was no logical grounds to include it and began producing yachts with non-teak decks. However, every customer demanded that their boat had a teak deck and it became apparent that a boatbuilder of expensive, quality yachts wasn't going to survive in Europe without a teak deck on his yachts. Hallberg-Rassy returned to producing teak decked yachts as standard. Sheer snobbery from the market drove them to produce a less effective product.

I've tried everything on my ageing HR deck, including Coelan - to no avail. Certainly it would be mad replacing it (if I could afford it) when the cost would be more than half the value of the boat.

Here is a previous posting with photo of how my Coelan-treated deck looked after one year of application.

 

[Twister_Ken]

Re Barnac1e's post above, it's only a couple of years back that HR realised it wasn't necessary to screw the teak down. As someone else once said: why build a perfectly waterproof boat, then drill thousands of holes in it?

 

[BrianH]

Re Barnac1e's post above, it's only a couple of years back that HR realised it wasn't necessary to screw the teak down. As someone else once said: why build a perfectly waterproof boat, then drill thousands of holes in it?

Of course, it's sheer madness. But back in the 1960s and for many years later, it was the only way to securely fit 10-12mm planks to a two-dimensional, compound curve. Modern adhesives changed all that but it was a brave boat-builder that made the first glued-down wooden deck without being sure how long it was going to last. And quite a few didn't.

Last year I replaced two teak planks due to rot on my 1981 HR with screwed planks on a silicon bed. I found that the original silicon had hardened and shrunk to the point of no longer being waterproof and which allowed water to flow between wood and fibreglass deck from all over and be trapped at the lowest point, causing the rot. A truly ridiculous cosmetic design feature.

 

[wazza]

As Barnac1e has, so do I have one of those Orust built boats, but from Henån.. I love our boat all but the stupid teak deck. I WILL take it off and re-place it with.....well something, but not teak!
But I'm going to see how this Xtreem Coat(Coelan) works on the coach roof looks then put it on the toe-rail. But I will not be putting it on the deck.

 

[OldBawley]

I have known a nice yacht, sold three times in 9 years, the problem was hundreds of leaks from the teak deck. Some nitwit had put a wooden deck on that yacht, it was not even real teak, was some hard splintering wood resembling teak. Now comes the hammer, they had riveted the wood to the deck. Probably just a fast upgrade for selling job.
Finely one new owner had the nerves to break all the wood of and seal all of those holes with an extra layer of fibreglass. Had a real good yacht after that work.
He also paid for the “ teak deck “. Shame. The boat was presented to him as a real bargain, one must be half blind not to see the damage already done.

 

[wazza]

What do you mean OldBawley, he laid teak again??? Are you kidding? Once mine is off, even if I could afford new teak there is no way I'd lay it back on.. I see no point!

 

[Koeketiene]

Once mine is off, even if I could afford new teak there is no way I'd lay it back on.. I see no point!

Smart man

 

[OldBawley]

What I meant is that he paid for the teak buying the yacht in the first place. After he broke the wood away, he had to put a extra coat of fibreglass on the decks and then painted with anti-slip deck paint. Filling those holes with epoxy or glass-fibre filler alone would have been no good.
I could not believe my ears when he told me he found pop rivets under the wooden plugs. Went down to have look myself.

 

[BrianH]

After he broke the wood away, he had to put a extra coat of fibreglass on the decks and then painted with anti-slip deck paint. Filling those holes with epoxy or glass-fibre filler alone would have been no good.

I don't understand why not. My fibreglass deck is closed cell cored and is substantial enough to be integrally strong enough alone with the holes filled in. That's why it is so incomprehensible to add a thick cladding of heavy teak at deck level to compromise stability.

I have a friend with a HR Monsum that has gone down the path of tearing off the teak and painting - it looks and feels great. As a further bonus, in the Italian summer it is much cooler below than my boat. I can feel the heat radiating from under the side decks where the teak is but nothing from the cabin top, which is the standard HR ivory fibreglass with diamond-patterned anti-slip surface - that I wish my decks were.

 

[Jenaline IV]

Only the deck?!

Pah!

http://www.soia.org.uk/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=409

 

[johna]

Cabin top

My solution remove teak replace with treadmaster smooth

 

[BrianH]

My solution remove teak replace with treadmaster smooth

That cabin top looks great - when do you start on the deck?

Thankfully, my deck has not reached such a state as yours, I can understand why you had to do something.

 

[OldBawley]

The yacht I was talking about was one of the bigger Dehlers. Walking on deck would have flexed the fibreglass, so making it possible that the fillings crack and created new leaks. The guy was so sick of water on his sealing that he wanted to be sure. He filled the holes and put one layer of chopped glass-fibre over it.
The statement about the radiated solar heat is correct. Our decks are Coelan coated teak, so do not get grey, they stay “ Teak colour “ In summer, at noon, the deck is so hot I need shoes of some sort to walk on it. The fact that I have been running around barefoot for 14 years now and so developed huge sucker feet is no help.
Fortunately the thickness of the wooden decks prevents the heat radiating into the boat. Still we rig a self made wind scoop all summer.
If it was not for the absolute water tightness on a all wooden deck, the Coelan would go to. It is extreme expensive, hard to get out here, and one other item to take care of.

 

[Robin]

My solution remove teak replace with treadmaster smooth

Wow John, very impressive!

 

[BrianH]

I may well end up doing the same as you and rip it all off (the Coelan that is)

Here we are, a photo of my friend helping me remove the Coelan - I hope you never have to go through the same.

​

 

[wazza]

Here we are, a photo of my friend helping me remove the Coelan - I hope you never have to go through the same.

​

When I say "if the Coelan doesn't I'll rip it up.." I'm refering the the whole deck and not just the Coelan!
I'm in the mids of getting the caulking up then I'll deepen the gully's re-caulk then sand down! And I've read your accounts feel for you..!!

 

[BrianH]

When I say "if the Coelan doesn't I'll rip it up.." I'm refering the the whole deck and not just the Coelan!

From my own experience it could be easier to take up the entire teak deck than get the Coelan off. In some areas where the bonding is poor or water has got under it peels off like an old skin in sheets, in others it sticks like sh!t and needs the wood sanding down to get below it.

I'm in the mids of getting the caulking up then I'll deepen the gully's re-caulk then sand down!

On no account neglect the ribbon bedding at the bottom of the grooving otherwise the expansion/contraction will break the caulking seal.

And I've read your accounts feel for you..!!

We should start a club of fellow teak-deck sufferers.

 

[wazza]

We should start a club of fellow teak-deck sufferers.

I'm thinking we'd have to start a complete new forum for that

Halberg Rassy have a lot to answer for for setting the trend that is teak screwed with 1000's of holes in a GRP deck....

With regards to my Coelan adventure, as I work on the boat I'm tempted to turn left and just rip the sheet up and lay something else straight off!! The only things that prevent me from doing so is..
1. I'd like to see how it turns out, I do like to the look of alot of brightwork topsides..
2. Every hour I spend doing this would've been wasted if I pull the plug and rip it up, added to the fact it's alot more time & money..