Exterior Wood Treatment

[NQuinn]

Any advice/products for preparing and treating the exterior wood on the hull?

Regards,

NQ

[blueprintbill]

There is no substitute. Varnish and all its pain is the only way to go. Look at Oyster Yachts, Look at Hinckley or Morris Yachts. All it takes is one hell of a lot of work to get the wood bare and the varnish surface built up. If there is any old material on it, start with a heat gun and a sharp putty knife or paint scraper, (buy a good flat file to keep the scraper sharp) strip it all off taking care not to burn the teak or gel coat surfaces. Get some good 3M sand paper and a sanding block or two (rubber type preferred that you can load up with 4 or 5 layers of paper, - as it wears out you can just tear away the top layer and continue on). Vibrator sander also works well but you must be careful not to abrade adjacent gel coat surfaces. Mikita make a good one that can be loaded similarly.
Finish sanding up to a 320 grit and get some acetone and paper towels to wipe all surfaces clean and teak oil free. Apply some good (read expensive) long life 3M masking tape on all adjacent gel coat surfaces- long life so that you can leave it down for the couple of weeks it might take to complete the job, with out leaving a gummy residue that will take another couple of days to clean up ( as well as damaging the new varnish job).
There is only one varnish to use and that's High Gloss Epiphanes,and expect to lay down 8 to 10 coats sanding lightly between each with the 320. Thin the first layer 50/50, for good saturation with wood. I use Epiphanes because of an experience I had once where after I had stripped my old (+/-10 years) finish and was building back the layers, after just finishing the 4th or 5th coat, the boat was caught in a torential rain storm. I was disgusted (sp?) and thru down my still wet (foam) brush and watched the water run down the decks with the rainbow irredescencent oil slick from the still wet varnish. I was in a funk for a week as I waited for the following weekend expecting to find a fogged disaster and a restripping job on my hands. Upon my return I was thrilled to find that the only result of the rain was some surface mottling due to falling raindrop impacts. These were easily remedied with the next required sanding operation, and I was able to carry on with the following 5 coats.
Epiphanes (A Dutch product which I hold no stock in - although I should ) is used almost exclusively in southern/tropical locals because of its superior UV resistance. I suspect that this makes for its slightly darker coloration compared to some of its competitors (but its really not that noticably dark that you can tell from boat to boat any differences-there have been published test results somewhere-?). I have found that in northern waters, Maine and northern Europe, that once I get the requisite mirror finish, 8 to 10 coats down, it only requires a single sanding and recoating per season. If you store outside, once in the spring and again in the fall. See photos of the Blueprints tiller as an example. In its 25 season history it has only been wooded 1 time (with the exception of the factory gold leaf striping which is original) and it gets one coat per season. I do take it off for the winter however, and the boat gets covered every winter as well.
Ya I know, varnish is crazy, and the latest greatest teak oil wiil save you all kinds of time, etc. etc. but you gets what you pay for, and these boats deserve to look as good as they give. Imagine if all owners were to finish out their boats to this level how valuable the fleet would become. Pretend its a tiny mega-yacht and go for the gloss, and remember Mies van der Rohe when he said 'God is in the details'.

Shouldn't this whole dicussion be a part of the 'Cosmetics and Renovation' thread?

[NQuinn]

Many thanks for the comprehensive and valuable advice.
Regards,
NQ

[ianstone]

I know it's taken two years to respond to this, but I have just sorted out my gunnels and handholds.
Both were treated in the conventional manner three times last year (2007), and within three months had gone back to grey. So this year I washed them again, teated with teak brightener to bring back the full colour, then instead of applying teak oil as before, I used polyurethane resin. This seals the old teak and loks out water once and for all (I hope). It also seals around the the edges, where there is a tendency for leaks. The finished look is a bit plastic, but she does look the business!
Has anyone else used this type of product and how long did it last?
cheers
Ian