Lazarette--The teak on Keeldragger was in rough
shape when I purchased her in 2001. The teak was old, grey, and weathered. In
fact, I don't believe the previous owner did any maintenance on the teak on the
31 years that he owned her. The stern lazarette and seat covers to port and
starboard were spongy. If someone where to put all of their weight on one of
them, they could have stepped right thru it! I pulled all three off the boat
and sanded off all of the grey wood. It was amazing that I didn't have to sand
much off to get to the beautiful, dark chocolate colored teak. Next, I
reinforced the wood from underneath with fiberglass and epoxy. Then... 20 coats
of Pettit Bak V Spar varnish!! I really like the Bak V Spar varnish, because it
hold a long 'wet edge'. Unfortunately, it takes a long time to dry so you can't
put on more than a coat a day.
Coamings--The story is similar for the coamings. I removed the coamings
from the boat and refinished them as well. I ran into some difficulty in
removing the port coaming. The coamings are secured from bolts on the
underside. One of the bolts is inaccessible due to the ice box. I wound up
cutting the bolt near the deck with a cutting blade on the end of a drill. It
was pretty easy to do, but left a slit at the bottom of the coaming. The
coamings were in rough shape. Again, I sanded off all of the grey wood. There
were a few gouges, etc. so I filled them using West System epoxy and their
special hardener. The special hardener is a low blush hardener specifically for
tasks such as coating wood that will be varnished. I lost count this time, but
I put on many, many coats of varnish. At this point, I had switched to Z-Spar
Flagship Varnish.
Handrails--The handrails were in similar shape to the lazarette and
coamings. In this case, I decided to remove the old handrails with new ones. I
purchased new teak handrails from West Marine (5 loops, I believe). Then, I
completely ignored Don Casey's comments about handrails and went ahead and
varnished them.
Toe Rail--Here is where I got lazy. The toe rail was in bad shape. After
incoming reports from the Varnish Wars and hearing about the wonders of Cetol,
I thought I would give it a try. I lightly sanded the toe rails, wiped them
down with acetone (or thinner), and then painted three coats of Cetol Marine
Light. After one season, I can make comment: THE VARNISH HAS HELD UP BETTER THAN
THE CETOL. CETOL, IN MY OPINION, IS DILUTED ORANGE PAINT. IT IS CRAP AND SHOULD
ONLY BE USED BY SAILORS WHO ARE TOO LAZY TO MAINTAIN THEIR BOAT OR, AS IN MY
CASE, HAVE A DEADLINE TO GET THE BOAT INTO THE WATER TO GO SAILING!!!!
Here's a couple of pics of the woodwork. I will post more in the near future.
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