Restoring/cleaning/Sealing (?) old teak on Golden Hind 31

[sniffyjenkins]

Hello again chums

Restoration of my new (to me) beautiful Golden Hind 31 Marschallin carries on apace, with me and my fella driving to Falmouth from Brighton every Friday, working like lunatics, driving back to Brighton on Sunday evenings, collapsing. Madness? Or madness? Especially considering I have a deadline from my agent to finish this damn novel.

Anyway. Teak! Marschallin is GRP hulled with teak rubbing strakes and a considerable amount of teak top side. It looks like this was varnished (the horror!) and a lot of the old varnish has varnished. Sorry. Has gone. There are some largeish patches left. Before I started cleaning most of the teak was bright green, there was a lot of moss and a couple of quite substantial plants (fetch me a shrubbery!) growing in various nooks and crannies. I've therefore elected to describe my cleaning operations on the boat as GARDENING.

My question is this (and btw I have read every forum post on teak cleaning I could find, and then some, and still feel a question is in order): should we (after cleaning and sanding to remove all old varnish) use Wessex two part cleaner and restorer on all of the teak and just leave it at that (i.e. NOT seal or do anything else, rubbing strakes included)? Or would the thing to do be to seal the rubbing strakes and 'outside-facing' teak bits with something like Semco or even Woodskin, and leave the 'interior' grey cockpit teak unsealed/untreated? Should all the teak in fact be treated the same? I have a feeling it should, otherwise we'll have two-tone teak. Which just seems wrong, no?

Or does it?

Having said this I kinda feel that the teak on the 'outside' should maybe be protected a bit and maybe the teak cleats? Maybe?

Photos (sort of) show where some of the teak is, some varnishy patches, some lovely greenery and himself pondering The Teak Question deeply on the day we first saw the boat:





Please help guys. Thanks

 

[Tranona]

The Wessex teak cleaner is effective and has oxalid acid as its active ingredient. What you do with it when it is clean is up to you. You can leave it bare and it will go grey, but you may suffer from mould particularly on the upper surfaces of the rubbing strakes which you can minimise by washing with Boracol or Patio Magic. Alternatively you can finish them bright , but it is difficult and time consuming to use conventional varnishes as adhesion is a problem and getting a well attached film takes many coats. You might also consider using International Woodskin which is easier to apply and touch up, longer lasting cheaper but less shiny than varnish. Leave the cockpit floor bare.

The guru on all things Golden Hind and wood maintenance is Richard Hares who writes extensively on the subject of wood finishes in both PBO and Classic Boat using his GH (which is for sale) as a test bed. You will see that his recommendation based on his tests is to use a stain such as Woodskin.

 

[sniffyjenkins]

Wonderful, thanks so much Tranona.

I was tending towards Woodskin already so that's good to hear.

I will look up Richard Hares!

 

[Whitty]

Patio magic 4 water to 1 patio magic mix on bare teak watch the teak turn silver grey after 2 weeks magic.

 

[Jock89]

I would borrow one of the common-or-garden low powered pressure washers & being careful not to go too close to the teak, just blow all the greenery off. It'll save an awful lot of elbow-grease & takes years of grime out as well.
When clean, get 1 kilo of Oxalic acid from eBay, (pretty cheap) mix it in small but strong batches in a plastic bowl of hot water & using a hard-ish deck scrubber, work your way round the deck & all the rest of the boat. Finish off with a good fresh-water wash & let dry. Stand back & admire the result.!
Mine came up beautifully, & a couple of coats of varnish on any teak around the cockpit area, rubbing strake & teak cap-rail transformed my yacht. (Or whatever finish you prefer
I had many compliments in the days after I'd finished.
Gwyneth

 

[sniffyjenkins]

I would borrow one of the common-or-garden low powered pressure washers & being careful not to go too close to the teak, just blow all the greenery off. It'll save an awful lot of elbow-grease & takes years of grime out as well.
When clean, get 1 kilo of Oxalic acid from eBay, (pretty cheap) mix it in small but strong batches in a plastic bowl of hot water & using a hard-ish deck scrubber, work your way round the deck & all the rest of the boat. Finish off with a good fresh-water wash & let dry. Stand back & admire the result.!
Mine came up beautifully, & a couple of coats of varnish on any teak around the cockpit area, rubbing strake & teak cap-rail transformed my yacht.
I had many compliments in the days after I'd finished.
Gwyneth

Ooh, lovely! Thanks

 

[Twister_Ken]

Not my special subject (I'm a bare teak man - I just give it a very light brush ACROSS the grain to clean off the worst of the muck - then slap on Boracol twice a year and leave it at that). Someone soon will mention oil finishes, probably Le Tonkinois and Coelan. Both give a varnish-lite appearance, and are easy to maintain, long-term.

(To use Coelan, just wash the wood off thoroughly before applying. This is called Coelonic Irrigation. Sorry!)

 

[Tranona]

Not my special subject (I'm a bare teak man - I just give it a very light brush ACROSS the grain to clean off the worst of the muck - then slap on Boracol twice a year and leave it at that). Someone soon will mention oil finishes, probably Le Tonkinois and Coelan. Both give a varnish-lite appearance, and are easy to maintain, long-term.

(To use Coelan, just wash the wood off thoroughly before applying. This is called Coelonic Irrigation. Sorry!)

Coelan is not an oil finish but a polyurethane film coating that requires a huge amount of preparation of the substrate to get it clean before application of a primer then top coats. Probably the most complex and expensive coating available but claims to be flexible and long lasting. However if it does fail - usually partially it is a pain to repair or remove an recoat. Some people swear by it, but others are put off by the cost, amount of work involved and the likelihood of failure.

 

[pvb]

I would borrow one of the common-or-garden low powered pressure washers & being careful not to go too close to the teak, just blow all the greenery off. It'll save an awful lot of elbow-grease & takes years of grime out as well.

It'll take a lot of the soft grain out as well, leaving a less than smooth surface which will trap dirt in the future. A pressure washer is about the last thing anyone should use on teak.

 

[ex-Gladys]

Are you positive it's all teak? Some of the stuff in the photo looks like it could be mahogany type hard wood.

 

[Tranona]

Are you positive it's all teak? Some of the stuff in the photo looks like it could be mahogany type hard wood.

As it is an original Erskine built GH it will be all teak for the rubbing strakes, toe rails and cockpit coamings.

 

[Boat441]

Depends on what you want.

If it's been varnished etc, Personally I would lightly sand it back until clean, then do nothing. I have als I like my teak grey, and don't like using chemicals on it. It's a natural product who's properties can be damaged by the use of aggressive cleaning, ie chemicals, pressure washers etc.

If you need to clean it subsequently just use a soft brush and a little fairy liquid, and always go across the grain. If you get some green build up, I use a flat bladed knife as a scrapper and use it very lightly.

I too have done a lot of research on the subject as my decks are teak, and at over £2k per square meter, the cost of replacing my decks would be about half the value of the boat, so a very strong incentive to look after them as best I can.

Enjoy your refurb, and that first sale; Falmouth is a great place to start for sure.

 

[sniffyjenkins]

Thanks all, lots of great info.

Think we'll go with bare teak everywhere but rubbing strakes, which we'll Woodskin.

Plan may change tomorrow.

 

[Tranona]

Good 2 days for getting any bright finish on before the winter. You should be able to get 3 coats of Woodskin on, one Saturday afternoon and two on Sunday. On my eventide, built by Hartwells, I Woodskin all the vertical surfaces and leave any horizontal teak bare. Tops of rubbing strakes are the most difficult to keep up because of the water that rests on them from dew and of course UV, so extra coat on that area is good.

 

[Jock89]

It'll take a lot of the soft grain out as well, leaving a less than smooth surface which will trap dirt in the future. A pressure washer is about the last thing anyone should use on teak.

This is why I said ''don't go too close to the teak''.
My rock-hard teak toe-rail had 1mm deep longitudinal grooves in & the pressure washer was the only thing that cleaned it out properly. I eventually got hold of a 220v sander & levelled off the grooves, which makes future cleaning & varnishing by hand a doddle.

 

[sniffyjenkins]

Good 2 days for getting any bright finish on before the winter. You should be able to get 3 coats of Woodskin on, one Saturday afternoon and two on Sunday. On my eventide, built by Hartwells, I Woodskin all the vertical surfaces and leave any horizontal teak bare. Tops of rubbing strakes are the most difficult to keep up because of the water that rests on them from dew and of course UV, so extra coat on that area is good.

This looks like the way to go for us, thanks

 

[reeac]

This looks like the way to go for us, thanks

my system is to let most of the external teak go grey but to have a few varnished highlights. These are easily removable items such as the tiller (one bolt) and the washboards. These items can then be taken home and refinished under decent warm, dry conditions.

 

[jwilson]

It'll take a lot of the soft grain out as well, leaving a less than smooth surface which will trap dirt in the future. A pressure washer is about the last thing anyone should use on teak.

+1
Pressure washers are absolutely ideal for damaging teak surfaces, also discovering you have nice new deck/window/hatch leaks.