Brightwork

Last week I start to tackle the toe and hand rails, the majority of the teak on the exterior. They were coated with Marine Cetol, which was beginning to flake and peel off, and was obviously beyond maintenance.

Repeated sanding by previous owners took so much teak off the toe rails that the tips of the fastening screws are now exposed. To minimize sanding, I used a heat gun to remove as much Cetol as possible. This worked pretty well on the handrails, but was difficult on the toe rails, as I had to be very careful not to melt the gel coat!

Today I finished stripping and light sanding, then cleaned the teak with some acetone. After spending an hour taping off the brightwork, the first coat of Sikkens Cetol Marine Natural Teak went on. This is a new Sikkens product, a lighter color than the “orangey” Cetol, with which most are familiar. The downside to using this is that I wasn’t able to completely remove all of the original, darker-colored Cetol, so the color isn’t as consistent throughout as I would have liked.

Since I planned to take my son and his girlfriend out on Sunday, I took the advice in a post on Sailnet.com and put another coat on several hours later, before the first completely cured (I hope!). I purchased a quart of gloss Cetol, which I will apply within the next week or so.

Update March 29: put on two coats of Cetol Gloss; one in the morning, and one after the first coat had dried to touch but not cured. These two pictures were taken about three weeks later:

~ by phallock on March 22, 2008.