Drying your teak deck out to caulk bits of it over the UK winter

[MagicalArmchair]

I have some caulking that I want to preventatively replace in a few patches where it is going a little hard. The deck on Mirage is pretty darn good for twenty years old, however, every time I visit the boat, the areas I need to work on never really dry out enough.

Does anyone have any suggestions to dry these areas out? Tie down a tarp over the area I guess is the most obvious?

 

[NormanS]

You've answered your own question.

 

[thinwater]

You will also need a baseline reading for reasonably dry teak. Different materials read differently.

Also a shout-out for Test Deck Systems Sealant. I tested a bunch on panels, and this won. 4 year test. Sika and 3M were in there too. In fact, it is an excellent product for many uses. Not cheap.
Caulk — Teakdecking Systems

 

[Sandy]

Can you get the boat in a shed over the winter?

 

[Ian_Edwards]

This may be an unconventional approach.
My boat developed a leaking teak deck in 2023.
I sort advice on this forum and bought a Fein Multitool and used a sealant removal tool to cut out the old deck sealant.
I worked really well, cutting long ribbon of sealant out surprisingly quickly, much, much better than over priced hand scrappers. I cut out all the sealant between the outer deck plank and the GRP bulwark on both sides of a 14m boat.
The boat was under cover but in places the roof leaked, and I found it impossible to get the teak moisture content down to the 12% 'ish level recommended for conventional teak deck sealant.
Running out of time, I decided to use OB1, which will seal under water.
I worked very well, and the process cured all the leaks. I bought a cheap Chinese battery powered sealant gun, well worth the money, I had about 30m of sealant to apply.
My only concern is it's UV tolerance of OB1, but the nature of the seal between deck planks and the seal between the outer deck plank and the GRP gunwale, is that only a narrow strip of sealant is exposed to the sun, the bulk of the sealant will never see the sun.
I also replaced short sections of deck plank, where screws had been used to fasten the end of the plank. The teak had split and water was getting in through the screw hole.
I used a Fostner bit to cut out the split sections of the plank, cleaned up and squared off the end with sharp chisel, Sealed the old screw hole with thickened epoxy and glued the replacement section of teak plank (kindly donated by a fellow member of the forum) using Gflex epoxy, and sealed the edge of the plank with OB1.
Some photos:

The problem.


Removing the damaged plank with a Fostner bit.


The leaking screw hole.


The replacement plank, before cleaning up and sanding.

Overall, the repair looks OK, probably not as good a true professional job. After a summer sailing the NW of Scotland, I don't notice it, the teak has weathered to the same colour as the rest of the deck.

Up up now I'd say that OB1 is as good if not better than conventional teak deck caulking, it a new generation adhesive/sealant/caulking, it works on damp wood, and is much much cheaper than the conventional alternatives.