LIBS - Sunseeker 28m and teak

[Hurricane]

Rather that drag up the old VAT thread where there was a little drift, I thought Id start a new thread.

I think some were saying that they didnt like mock teak rail.

For those who didn’t go (or notice), the 28m Sunseeker at the show had artificial teak everywhere.

You may call me a heathen but, actually, I quite liked it.

The last thing I would want on a boat is a wood rail that need continual varnish and teak generally becomes very rough for a rail. But this “plastic” solution seems to me to be a really good idea. Likewise all the teak was in this new material.

I’m afraid I quite like it. I wonder what it will look like in a few years. It should look just as good.

 

[MRC]

I think SS are gtoing to be using flexi teak on all their boats now. I may have that wrong but thats how i read it so dont shoot the messenger

 

[paultallett]

We had tek dek fitted 5 years ago and still looks like new........... I guess they figure it's a maintenance thing?

 

[MYAG]

................
I think some were saying that they didnt like mock teak rail.

For those who didn’t go (or notice), the 28m Sunseeker at the show had artificial teak everywhere.....................

Hmmm, underfoot for the decks was fine, no problem with that at all, in fact I also thought it looked quite good there.

I just didnt like the capping in fake teak, the plank (literally!) was very wide and the amount of it (particlarly at the stern) was over powering imo. The other issue with fake teak in this position is that unlike decking, you are always touching it with your hands, so it kinda becomes personal and imo I think that means it should be in high quality natural materials. Each to their own though.

 

[kashurst]

I've got flexi teak on my bathing platform. Scrubs well but it gets incredibly hot in the sun. Have to pour buckets of water on it first, before using it as a bathing platform. The rest of the teak is real and stays at a reasonable temperature. I wouldn't have it again.

 

[MYAG]

I've got flexi teak on my bathing platform. Scrubs well but it gets incredibly hot in the sun. Have to pour buckets of water on it first, before using it as a bathing platform. The rest of the teak is real and stays at a reasonable temperature. I wouldn't have it again.

Thats interesting because where I do my boating I can't stand on the real teak decks from 11am until 5pm barefoot, either have to wear flip flops or wet the decks like you do. I would have thought fake teak would be about the same if not maybe cooler underfoot. To hear its hotter definately makes it a no no for me.

 

[z1ppy]

I've got flexi teak on my bathing platform. Scrubs well but it gets incredibly hot in the sun. Have to pour buckets of water on it first, before using it as a bathing platform. The rest of the teak is real and stays at a reasonable temperature. I wouldn't have it again.

we had flexiteak on the rib and it did get very hot in the sun!! bathing platform was too hot to stand on sometimes. not noticed the same on the Hunton yet (real teak) but we haven't really had much decent weather since owning it!

 

[jfm]

I agree Hurricane. I went on the ss 28m and I think fake teak has now got to be really good stuff, and taking into account the ecological arguments I am probably going to put it on next boat. But I agree with MYAG - decks only, not capping rails. Capping rails shouldn't be bare teak anyway; they need to be varnished or oiled.

It isn't Flexi teak; it's Esthec, a Dutch product

I've had fake teak in my RIB tender all season 2011 (Wilks) and it has been excellent

My only reservation in choosing esthec vs flexi teak vs tek dek vs wilks is to see how it looks when wet. My guess would be that s/s evaluated all the brands and decided Esthec is best

EDIT I just looked carefully at the pics on the esthec website and the detialing is all wrong - the grain on the borders is the same direction as the grain on the planking that the bordering surrounds, even if it should be at 90deg or whatever, That' all wrong, yuk. I didn't notice if s/s Y28m had this problem - MYAG please can you look if you are on the Y28m next week?

 

[Elessar]

the grain on the borders is the same direction as the grain on the planking that the bordering surrounds,

the same grain, same direction, is also in the "sikaflex".

 

[jimmy_the_builder]

EDIT I just looked carefully at the pics on the esthec website and the detialing is all wrong - the grain on the borders is the same direction as the grain on the planking that the bordering surrounds, even if it should be at 90deg or whatever, That' all wrong, yuk. I didn't notice if s/s Y28m had this problem - MYAG please can you look if you are on the Y28m next week?

Funnily enough we noticed this specific point when we were on the 28M last weekend - and it does have this problem of continuity of grain pattern along the planking and then across (for example) the bullnose at a step.

Cheers
Jimmy

 

[jfm]

Yup Ellesar and Jimmy, I see what you mean. I've gone right off this stuff. My Wilks deck on my tender doesn't have this flaw

I think they make sheets of it witht he caulking all in there, then run the sheet under a massive wire brush (roller?) to scratch the surface and create the wood grian texture. But that results in all the scratches going the same way. Looks rubbish.

 

[davo99]

Looks like sheets cut to size, then given the once over with a CNC mill / router to define the 'planks' then caulked

 

[jfm]

Looks like sheets cut to size, then given the once over with a CNC mill / router to define the 'planks' then caulked

Yup I just watched the install YouTube and i see your point. Looks like they buy in sheets of pastic with the wood grain surface texture already applied. Then they cnc mill/route the caulk grooves as you say. 4.24 on the video shows the problem of wrong-grain-direction margin planks close up. Pity!

 

[davo99]

Large sheets aren't a prob, just need to take the extra step of doing borders seperately, the 'right' way round.

 

[jfm]

Large sheets aren't a prob, just need to take the extra step of doing borders seperately, the 'right' way round.

My guess is that is not feasible. If you watch the vid all the joints between panels were made by profiling the edges and using a special brown adhesive agent, and the joints were not along the caulking lines (which surprised me...). The joints were also kept to a minimum

The reason for this I guess is that you cannot sand the deck after it is installed as you can with real teak Therefore all joints have to be perfectly flat. If you did the borders as separate pieces there would be massive labour costs in bonding them to the main sheets perfectly flat. They cannot just gob sikaflex onto the boat and apply the sheets then apply the borders separately, then vacuum bag it, because it wont be perfectly flat where the borders meet the sheets and as i say they cannot correct that by sanding. So I reckon this messed up grain pattern is unavoidable.

This is just my guesswork though...

 

[davo99]

Hadn't thought about sanding down to get it flat

 

[Elessar]

Yup I just watched the install YouTube and i see your point. Looks like they buy in sheets of pastic with the wood grain surface texture already applied. Then they cnc mill/route the caulk grooves as you say. 4.24 on the video shows the problem of wrong-grain-direction margin planks close up. Pity!

I didn't see the sunseeker, but the ones I've seen form this company before don't have the CNC grooves and real caulk, the grain goes across the fake caulk too.

The demo ones on the website have the grained/fake caulk.

I can't see why separate margin boards, CNC milling and real caulk is as difficult as you think. A flat board pressing down on top when bonding would make the height almost perfect. Almost is good enough as the caulk would hide a (very slight) difference. It's how the wilkes ones are done after all.

 

[Mino]

I started a thread on the Liveabord forum a few days ago about synthetic teak. It makes for interesting reading. I'm probably going to try Marinedeck, but will let the thread run its course first gefore making a final decision and physically checking the stuff out.