Teak decking on flybridge in med

Well yeah, I surely wouldn't mind getting one from Santa as a Xmas present.

But if you like this type of boat porn, rather than attaching other o/t pics, I'd suggest you to google for Moka, the very first SL explorer yacht: 20' longer than Aurora, which Nordhavn had all sort of troubles to launch after a 5+ years painful build in their Chinese factory, and already up there with all the best vessels of this kind - I mean the proper ones, made in steel+alu superstructure: it really takes a Nordies fan, to even think of buying a plastic 120' explorer yacht... :ambivalence:
...it's no coincidence that SL already sold 4 of their magnificent vessels even before Moka was launched.
Well done, folks! :encouragement:
And yours for only USD200,000 per week (winter rate only)
I still like the big Nordie
 
Sure you do, on the high end ones
The high end ones only and they dont like doing it because they see teak as an unnecessary frippery which adds nothing to the functionality of the boat. Btw in your second picture you can already see the teak staining in front of the jacuzzi. Guests dripping suntan lotion before getting in the jacuzzi I guess;)
 
...adds nothing to the functionality of the boat.
Depends I suppose on your view of the function of the boat. In my book its functions include being a nice place/thing to look at and to spend time on, so teak deck adds to that imho, as do plenty of other luxuries. That's the whole point surely. But each to their own I guess. we seem to be discussing a lot of first world problems lately :D
 
Depends I suppose on your view of the function of the boat. In my book its functions include being a nice place/thing to look at and to spend time on, so teak deck adds to that imho, as do plenty of other luxuries. That's the whole point surely. But each to their own I guess. we seem to be discussing a lot of first world problems lately :D

+1,
 
I'm afraid it's not so simple, B.
Far from pretending to be an expert on this subject, but afaik also the encapsulation with resins only of the top side of a wooden deck can be a recipe for a disaster.
My understanding is that no matter how perfectly the resin is glued above ply panels, what you eventually get are two materials with different properties, thermal dilatation, etc.
In the not so long term, this can lead to partial detachments of the resin from the wood panels, and any surface detached (mind, fraction of millimeters is enough!) becomes a trap for condensation, progressively getting worse once it starts, and eventually rotting the wooden parts - without any visible evidence of it, neither from above nor from inside! :(
Sorry to sound as a bit of scaremonger, but I'm just reporting what I've been told (by folks with a LOT of first hand experience, anyway).

thats going to be a tough decision than,
In my mind the GRP layer was a good solution,

how about epoxy, this is a bit more flexible I believe
Or we should find a elastic product like the caulking rubber to seal the plywood deck

How about Vas, didn't he put a layer of glass fabric on some parts of his deck ?
have to investigate further !
 
What do you do to your teak that's relentless Mike? If you like it straw brown then it needs a two part treatment once or twice a year, and otherwise surely you just wash it when you wash the boat?

An advantage of the teak being brown is that it doesn't show up small amounts of dirt that start landing on the boat the moment you finish cleaning it. Before I put teak down, I found that every time someone walked on the white GRP with wet feet (which happens constantly when the kids like to jump off the flybridge into the sea) it left a slightly dirty footprint, so the flybridge deck needed cleaning far more often that the boat.

Overall I find the teak less time consuming that a plain white deck, though I don't 2-part it anymore because SWMBO prefers the faded colour

Sorry for the late reply. Nick - been a bit busy lately.

I do use the two part cleaner (Wessex in fact)
But it is still a lot of work - we have flybridge, side decks, cockpit and bathing platform to do.
I like it looking as close to new as possible.
A lot of yachtie friends say "just throw some sea water over it" and keep it silvery but I think that is a "cop out" it looks better like new.
It isn't just the cleaning either.
This year, I sanded down the side decks and bathing platform to make it smooth to walk on.
I found an old post of yours recommending stripping off the black caulking with a sharp chisel before sanding.
Thanks for that, it saved a huge amount of time.
However even just the side decks and bathing platform still took a couple of days hard work.

Sorry, for me, teak is plain hard work (I don't pay someone else - I do it myself)
So, I am still looking at synthetic options.
Plenty of time yet though so no rush into the decision.
Even then, if I were to use synthetic, I would probably only the bathing platform and see if it worked for me.
If it didn't, I would replace it with wood and start the hard work of keeping it clean all over again.

As I get older and wiser, time like this becomes more precious and I hate paying someone else to do the work.
 
Depends I suppose on your view of the function of the boat. In my book its functions include being a nice place/thing to look at and to spend time on, so teak deck adds to that imho, as do plenty of other luxuries. That's the whole point surely. But each to their own I guess. we seem to be discussing a lot of first world problems lately :D

Dont get me wrong. I like my teak deck as much as anyone just not on my f/b. But yes we need to get back to arguing about real world issues like the optimum number of scatter cushions per metre of saloon seating and the minimum desirable icemaker capacity to guest ratio:D
 
how about epoxy, this is a bit more flexible I believe
Or we should find a elastic product like the caulking rubber to seal the plywood deck
'Dunno, B.
All the folks I spoke with, which actually built (a couple of them still do) or refit boats/decks in wood, invariably told me that a proper caulking is what must keep water out of the boat, nothing else.
Trouble is, since decks began to be GRP moulded, most yards began paying less and less attention to caulking jobs, because a non-perfectly waterproof caulking is only going to affect a teak deck cosmetically - as opposed to a wooden deck, which can be structurally damaged by water ingress... :ambivalence:
 
Sorry, for me, teak is plain hard work [...]
So, I am still looking at synthetic options.
M, just in case you might be interested:
My (personal, of course!) assumption is that plain vanilla non-skid GRP decks are the best thing to have in any exposed parts of a GRP boat (namely, walkarounds, f/b and swim platform, leaving teak only in the cockpit).
But in my search of a plastic boat, I came across several interesting vessels which already had teak - some of them already in need of replacement.
So, I investigated the possibility of just removing teak and revert to the original non-skid GRP.
But unfortunately, I discovered that most (all?) GRP decks for which the first owner specced teak are sanded flat at the yard, before glueing teak on top.
This means that the only possibility to restore a diamond non-skid surface is through "secondary" thin GRP panels, built to measure and attached on the original deck, as a replacement of the teak layer.
Feasible, but it's tricky to make a good job, and pretty expensive anyway.
One alternative I was suggested is the use of a resin mixed with plastic microbeads.
I didn't find the idea so attractive in principle, but they showed me one boat refitted with that solution and I must say that it wasn't bad at all - and allegedly, it's almost as longlasting as a GRP deck originally left the way God intended it to be.
Just a thought - best of luck anyway, whatever you will decide to go for! :encouragement:
 
I didn't choose the teak option (side decks and cockpit not offered on fly) because we thought it a lot of money for something the dog would destroy.
It seems to me that there are two kinds of teak. The first is when a magnificent tree is ripped out of an exotic rainforest without care or thought to wildlife that depend on it or whether it provides oxygen for the health of the planet as long as it provides income to a warlord to continue his wars. This is then cut into planks and sold to you (perhaps via Princess).
The second type of teak is when a magnificent tree is ripped out of an exotic rainforest without care or thought to wildlife that depend on it or whether it provides oxygen for the health of the planet as long as it provides income to a warlord to continue his wars. This is then turned into sawdust and reconstituted and turned into planks and sold to you (perhaps via Benneteau)
 
M, just in case you might be interested:
My (personal, of course!) assumption is that plain vanilla non-skid GRP decks are the best thing to have in any exposed parts of a GRP boat (namely, walkarounds, f/b and swim platform, leaving teak only in the cockpit).
But in my search of a plastic boat, I came across several interesting vessels which already had teak - some of them already in need of replacement.
So, I investigated the possibility of just removing teak and revert to the original non-skid GRP.
But unfortunately, I discovered that most (all?) GRP decks for which the first owner specced teak are sanded flat at the yard, before glueing teak on top.
This means that the only possibility to restore a diamond non-skid surface is through "secondary" thin GRP panels, built to measure and attached on the original deck, as a replacement of the teak layer.
Feasible, but it's tricky to make a good job, and pretty expensive anyway.
One alternative I was suggested is the use of a resin mixed with plastic microbeads.
I didn't find the idea so attractive in principle, but they showed me one boat refitted with that solution and I must say that it wasn't bad at all - and allegedly, it's almost as longlasting as a GRP deck originally left the way God intended it to be.
Just a thought - best of luck anyway, whatever you will decide to go for! :encouragement:

On the subject of resin with micro beads....... I've built from bare hull a few 16-20 foot fishing boats for personal use over the years, main decks of marine ply with two layers of chopped strand matting glassed over the top, then finished with a clear resin with fine slate chippings on one boat I made, the other finished with white flow coat and glass beads, these boats took a fair bit of abuse and believe me they lasted very well indeed....
Both methods the same, mask off the area to be treated, put a good rollered layer of resin/flow coat down then liberarly sprinkle the wetted area with the anti slip medium (use plenty) wait for the base to dry thoroughly before using a vacuum cleaner to remove surplus grit/balls which have not stuck...
Then give a final coat with resin/flowcoat over the lot for what I consider to be an excellent professional looking finish....
Will try and dig out some photo's for you.

Edit
TOP TIP...Do not mix the beads/grit in with the resin/flowcoat prior to trying to roller it on, my mate tried this method and it was horrific :-)
 
Last edited:
as jfm says i have fake teak- its way better than the blue non slip cross channel ferry paint that flybridge used to be in!
And it is a cost effective choice. Also had side decks teak replaced with it last winter -Yes its hotter underfoot- noticeably -the new lighter type being a bit better but still noticeably hotter than real stuff. Looks good- used MA decking from Hull (they came in van to Antibes nice guys). But when the kids cover it in crisps/ suntan etc it is much harder than the old teak to clean- takes serious scrubbing with jif etc .
 
...... I've built from bare hull a few 16-20 foot fishing boats for personal use over the years, main decks of marine ply with two layers of chopped strand matting glassed over the top, then finished with a clear resin with fine slate chippings on one boat I made, the other finished with white flow coat and glass beads, these boats took a fair bit of abuse and believe me they lasted very well indeed....

yes pls post some pics, I'm also interested, especially the matting on the plywood,
any good / bad experince over time would be much apreciated,
thanks !
 
Top