Oil, Varnish or Woodstain

[Anonymous]

At the risk of being provocative I thought I would ask members about their preferred wood treatments and why.

The NC33 I am buying has relatively new teak decking which has been left to its own devices. The detailing of the handrails and the sliding roof edging and roof rails etc. are varnished. Visually I like the contrast.

I read an interesting article in Classic Boat talking about the increasing trend to use woodstain rather than varnish because of its lasting properties and the fact that it has improved a lot so no longer looks like mud.

Any views on the various pros and cons would be welcome. I struggled for years without success to find a varnish that was not too glossy and lasted more than a season on horizontal surfaces.

Thanks

Nick

[Anonymous]

We started off life with some sort of long service varnish/stain type muck, that the previous owner had, I believe) put on with a spade! From memory, I believe that cost us about £750 to have removed (in Greece). From that time on, we kept it bare, washing it only in salt water and lightly sanding and putting on a thin coating of Teak oil from time to time.

This gave rise to a fully sailable and serviceable finish and endless desires from my wife to have her varnished, which i (as Captain) vetoed and without hesitation.

I think it worked, as we now have another boat (331) and I have so far not heard any suggestion about coating it. Mind you, I do now have hearing aids and a strong conviction that I would still veto it. Time has moved on and although my wife is now Captain, I am now Admiral – so she would not stand a chance!

[Anonymous]

Regarding handrail, roofrail etc…, I am using Desk Olje D1 and D2. The finish with D2 is good, as long as you respect closely the instructions for application of D1 and D2, the first time you use these products.  

If you do it well the first time, yearly maintenance is not difficult nor time consuming.

Now I have myself a question regarding masts and booms : the ones of my boat are made of wood and varnished. I am obviously looking forward to avoiding frequent visits up the masts. So far, with 12 layers of italian monocomponent polyurethane varnish  Stoppanni (the brand used for the Riva’s), I managed to minimize maintenance for 5 years. Now I must do it all again (dismasting, getting to bare masts, 12 layers of varnish etc…). Can someone make me a recommendation regarding a brand/typre of varnish (bicomponent polyurethane) ? Does anybody have an advice about Coelan ?

Thank you in advance,

Regards,

Ilkiva

[Anonymous]

Hi, I have a 331 and when she was 2 years old started using Semco an American product marketed in the UK by Onward Trading near the Hamble river. I have been using it for ten years and I recommend it. It’s easy to apply you can do the whole boat including deck in a day easily. It’s the closest to real looking untreated new teak as you can possibly get. It has good UV inhibiters. My boat has been in Portugal for the last nine years and I still get comments like “is it a new boat” or “have you had the teak renewed” there are a lot of people using it in the UK and shouldn’t be difficult for you to find someone who is using it. My only regret is that I didn’t start using it from new!!! If your teak has gone grey you will have to clean it with the Semco cleaner which is a messy job but usual only needs doing once. Regards Paul

[Anonymous]

There is a very nice Hallberg Rassy in Gosport marina and the teak decks are lovely.  Owner uses Semco – and I have decided to use the same this year.  There is a two step preparation and then the Semco goes on.  Results look to be impressive.  I’ll do mine in two weeks time and post a picture here.

By the way Onward Trading are on the same business park as my employer so will pick some up – anyone else want some and I’ll get the next size up.

rdgds

Richard.

[Anonymous]

I think Semco was used on a Cromarty 36 I saw at Birdham Pool last summer now for sale. I will be very interested to hear how it goes for you Richard because the honey colour is certainly quite smart and the manufacturers reckon it nurtures the wood better.

[Anonymous]

Richard / Paul, I see there are various shades of Semco sealer. The manufacturer suggests yachties prefer “natural” and it sounds preferable to me. Is that what you will / have used?

Thanks, Nick

[Anonymous]

Picked up my Quart of natural yesterday. Bought the red and green pre treatment as well. Anti fouling today so will do the decks in 2 weekends time. Will put some photos up here when done

[Anonymous]

I use the Semco natural and I know many people who also use it as it is the nearest colour you can get to natural raw teak. You do need to apply it twice a year. It is easy to apply and you only need to use the two part cleaner when you first apply the Semco.

[Anonymous]

So as promised here’s what happened yesterday – but can I start by saying that rarely has a job like this given so much satisfaction. I am impressed with the end result.

When I bought Discovery III (known as Lene Marie then) – I renewed the main teak deck but left the stern as it is in ok condition).

I’ve put in some photos so you can see the process.  

Firstly you need the red and green treatments – these are highly effective (and do not do as I did and get the red on your skin – I have lost a layer of skin from my knees). You need heavy duty scourers – I used Starbrite ones and the coarse one was better that the soft.  I also have a long handled soft brush which I used to ensure even coverage (especially useful for the green).  A bucket of water is essential if you have heavily greened decks to keep the scourer working – and also to keep the deck wet as you work.  Proper gloves are also needed – I found the red went through those surgical gloves fairly easily

So first I washed the decks and topside just using boat cleaner to get rid of dust, bird poo etc.

You can see here that they are heavily stained – lots of green on them

So once wet – you put the red on.  It will inevitably hit the gel coat – there’s little you can do to avoid it really. Although it says to keep it off I did not notice any lasting effects.  You then really do need to rub with a moderate pressure to loosen the algae. I found it came off easily, but my long handled brush was too soft to shift it.  You can see the difference in colour in this picture.  

This is the longest stage in the process.  I kept repeating the process on stubborn areas, washing with a hose – I was amazed at how much dirt and algae came off.

Once you’ve gone around with the red then you use the green – I slopped it on and then used the long handle brush.  This takes very little time and then wash off and leave to dry for 4-8 hours.  Now the decks have come back looking new.

I used this much of the treatments for my Nauticat 38.

Happy to hand this onto anyone who wants it (or indeed the supplier, Onward Trading is based next to my office so I can pick some up and then people can get it from me at the weekend in Gosport Marina if more convenient and saves the postage).

Lastly I applied just one coat of natural Semko – it says to do two coats but I ran out – I bought a quart and probably need three.

Decks now look good and I look forward to seeing what they are like wet and ithe long term durability of the treatment.

Next weekend I will recommission the engine, clean the canvass sail covers, polish the topsides get the sails on ready for Easter weekend.  

[Anonymous]

That is a really convincing set of photos, very inspiring. No question now, I will give it a go sometime during the summer. Thanks for such a thorough post.

[Anonymous]

Hi,

My 10 year old NC321 has been treated with Semco since new and I think it is very good except rather expensive.

However in my experience the dirt builds up in the wood and the algae starts growing again so that after every 2 years or so I have to go through the whole cleaning process again.

I wouldn’t get rid of your excess cleaners because you may need them in the future. To save a bit of money I have also used the 2 part cleaners which are sold by Compass24 mail order under their Teak Wonder brand. I have also tried their Sealer but it is not as good as Semco.

As far as I can see the cleaners are an alkali solution and the brightener is an acid solution.

[Anonymous]

Hi Discovery III, I am planning on buying some of the cleaner and Semco from Onward at the boat show. I was wondering how you felt it had performed over the summer?

Many thanks,

Nick

[Anonymous]

They still look just like the photos I took then. Very impressed and there should be no deck srubbing. If you are coming to Technicat on the 15th September then you can have a look and happy to hand over the deck treatments if you want them.

rgds

Richard.

[Anonymous]

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