worn cockpit teak veneered ply - how to repair

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superboots

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Bavaria Ocean 47 centre cockpit with teak veneer plywood to cockpit surround has lasted pretty well but where there has been foot traffic amid ships the veneer has worn away exposing the raw plywood base. Is there a way to repair without replacing the whole lot which won't look like a bodge. Would a non-slip synthetic patch look purposeful or nasty? Could I re-veneer the ply in situ?( its about 30cm wide)
 
superboots said:
Bavaria Ocean 47 centre cockpit with teak veneer plywood to cockpit surround has lasted pretty well but where there has been foot traffic amid ships the veneer has worn away exposing the raw plywood base. Is there a way to repair without replacing the whole lot which won't look like a bodge. Would a non-slip synthetic patch look purposeful or nasty? Could I re-veneer the ply in situ?( its about 30cm wide)
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I have the same problem with my boat. The outer ply was paper thin and a previous owner had let in pieces of veneer where it had been sanded through. They don't match very well and it doesn't look very good to me but nobody else seems to notice it.

I did toy with the idea of lining the cockpit with thin vertical tongue and groove hardwood boards. That would have looked good in my 5-year old boat but might look out of place in a modern boat.
 
If it is an area of high traffic usage, then I would remove the existing panel and replace with solid teak. H J Howells make panels to fit a pattern you provide. I expect your panel will be 6mm thick, but they also do 9mm. It comes ready as a single panel to bond into the recess, so will look very good and it is not difficult to do. I used 9mm in my Fulmar cockpit and it looks so much better than synthetic teak despite being laid 6 years ago. The best tip I will give for fixing is to use bins or bucket filled with water.

IMAG1458 1000pix.jpg
 
Hallberg Rassey did the same building my boat, I removed the seats and turned them upside and swapped port for starboard, then sanded and varnished it came up like new.

I drilled and plugged the holes and put in some solid teak bits in the edging but it looked good for years. (I now have bare painted fiberglass ... the teak seating is in storage)
 
We replaced our teak cockpit floor and seats after 36 years. They were originally 15mm solid teak. The new teak is 25mm. Epoxied in place. No ply. Don't expect it to ever need replacing again. Certainly not in my lifetime
 
Some years ago I had a similar problem with a cockpit seat. Some of the panels had been damaged or worn through. Each strip was about 50mm wide and about 600mm long the strips separated by black caulking strips. I chiseled out the panel and adjacent caulking strips just leaving the bottom layer of the ply in place, I then cut a new teak panel and glued it is place sanded back to the panel level and re-caulked. 10 years later it is still good. In a couple of places there was only one small area of damage, so I just cut that section out and scarfed in a new piece. You can see the join but as the boat is 40 years old it blends other repairs done over the years.

David MH
 
Initially I was going for a total overlay with teak planks bonded onto the existing ply (suitably prepared). Found a carpenter who would do this pre-forming on to sheets from templates. Best price I could get was 1000 euros for Burma Teak (in Turkey) But now decided to make a patch repair using Treadmaster smooth patches. Relatively cheap and can do it myself. If I don't like the result I can go back to my previous plan
 
Had the same on my Moody. Marine Projects used solid teak for the decks but only teak faced ply on cockpit floor, seats and the transom steps. Moody Decking made up drop in panels for me since they had the templates but I assume they would do the same if you supplied drawings. Very similar to Howells I imagine.
 
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