I have been looking at various SFs lately, mostly 38-50 feet range. Many have teak cockpit decks. My intention would be to fish. A lot. My question is how does one best protect the teak deck when it will be repeatedly exposed to blood and so forth? Obviously varnish is a no go, it would be too slick and surely someone would break their neck. I'm guessing Semco or similar. Any thoughts?
If you rinse the blood off while the blood is still wet with raw water, it usually washes right off. Most of the sportfishes leave it bare and just clean it every month or two. If you insist on putting something on it. I like the Starbrite Tropical Teak sealer (light or natural color). 3 coats leaves it grainy so it's not slippery and it still looks good. I have also gone right over the old stuff with another coat without any ill effects or prep work at all.....However, 2 coats only lasts about 3 months......however brushing another coat is no big deal, or putting more coats to start with. The Cetol Marine (sikkens) natural works very good as well as lasts a good year, however it can be slippery when wet. 2 coats of color and 3 coats of clear then you can just add a coat of clear whenever you want, after lightly sanding without stripping it everytime.
Teak Teak will and does get very hot on Bear feet and most SF will keep a wash down hose going to keep it cool and like CaptJ says the blood etc will easily wash off when it is still wet. Custom SF boats and others have built in sprays that act like misters to keep the teak cool & clean
Very true, I know this from other boats I've been on (our GB has nonskid). Now misters, that sounds fancy. I haven't seen that yet but I suppose if you backing down enough you don't need em...
My 54 Viking has a teak cockpit and I use and have been pleased with Semco. I like the color it imparts, but that's a personal preference thing. As others have said we keep the deck wet when fishing, blood etc... just rinses right off. I use sudsy ammonia if the deck is really dirty.
Personal preference is the key here but there are other factors to consider. Most of the other crewed SF I encounter either keep the teak cockpit rail #1) clean natural or #2) oiled. Oiled looks identical to clean natural wet teak and most prefer the wet oiled look- that's not to say more boats are oiled however. The oiled rail get darker with regular boat washings and time. To make it look nice you have to refresh with more oil from time to time and that makes the wood even darker. At some point you have to use a 2 part cleaner like Snappy Teak to return it to the clean natural just sanded look and then re-oil. The oiled rail also gets considerably hotter than a clean natural rail. I see a 50%/50% split with clean natural and oiled rails on crewed SF's. I have not seen any professionally crewed boats with a oiled deck- although that can be common on other boats. Cooler climates may allow this- IDK. The teak decks of all crewed SF's I know are clean natural. The clean natural just sanded look has a variety of products out there plus your own elbow grease to keep your teak looking CNJS. When fishing, get the rail wet when you're about to get a fish on it. Not much sticks or stains a wet teak deck on an active SF. Use your washdown hose to spray/clean fish blood etc with a stiff brush cross grain as it happens. I've seen plenty of misting systems for the passengers cooling comfort on the cockpit mezz seating- but never a mister system for the teak deck to keep it cool for your bare feet. Some boats are wood overload and some are wood free. Wood in the right places really sets a boat apart and keeping it in top condition makes the boat shine and pop.
On the Semco I have used both the Natural and the Honeytone. I prefer the Honeytone, but again that's just personal preference. To me the Semco gives the teak that "wet look" and it lasts. I much prefer it over true natural teak.
We all know how nice, varnished teak looks. We also know that attorneys also like nice varnished teak because it's an accident waiting to happen. I will be redoing some of the teak trim on my Post, while leaving any teak sections that might be underfoot unvarnished. However, as the picture below shows, it seems that perhaps applying nonskid strips to step surfaces might be an option. Here you can enjoy the nice varnished finish while at the same time reduce the chances someone will actually experience a significant orthopedic misadventure when he encounters the step surface. Does anyone have experience with these nonskid applications? Do they hold up? Do they work as intended? Thanks! John
I would suggest for the horizontal pieces, King starboard anti-skid, marine-grade pieces with diamond pattern to prevent slipping and promote drainage. If you have a router, buy a sheet, cut your own pieces and route a nice half bull nose on it. I replaced and updated a lot on my Post, see the result below... Starboard is also easy to clean and won't rot!
Thanks PC, Now on the flat surfaces it looks like you removed the teak altogether and replaced it with the King Starboard non-skid. Is that correct? I am assuming you used counter sunk stainless screws to fasten the starboard to the mounting surface. Looks nice.
Yes, removed all 'step on' horizontal pieces. (already made, but need to change the ladder steps) I fastened it with just a few s/s screws from below (not visible) plus 3M 4000UV sealer, so it can be removed is ever necessary.
+1 Teak loves sea water. Natural teak that is. Having small areas of timber (not deck areas) varnished, really looks great.
Starboard is not strong enough to be used as ladder steps generally. You may want to adhere it on top of your origional steps for strength.......
Yeah I agree. Looking at Curcao's pics he put the starboard onto the existing moulded steps. I would do the same if I went that route. When I was inquiring of removing the step first I was referring only to the teak, not the moulded step. I'm still undecided how I want to do this project though. The starboard works nice for curaçao cause he also painted all of his trim (window trim, box trim, steps) white. I'm not sure how the starboard would look if I kept the other teak varnished instead of painted. Probably ok, but not totally sold.
Another option is to use non-skid particles when finishing the teak, they are nearly transparent and give good traction. for exterior high traffic areas I usually apply several coats of epoxy, sand flat and then apply a couple coats of a UV Polyurethane using either the broadcast method or spray with the non-skid in the last couple coats. On interior work we delete the epoxy step and use just the Polyurethane.
Solid teak steps can have several grooves routed across them. Fill the grooves with deck caulking and you have a raw teak non skid step.