[Passport] Hand rails / Cap rail / Varnishing

[Jean-Philippe Gaillard]

All,

 

I am tired of varnishing every 5 months. it really sucks. I saw a Hylas recently who left his cap rail and hand rails unvarnished and the teak was happy that way.

 

I was wondering if anyone has left his Hand Rails and Cap Rail lose their varnish over time and kept them "natural" and how that worked out.

 

Best regards

JP

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[Albireo]

Check out this photo of Trial Run! Looks great (and unvarnished) to
me!

http://pacificcup.org/files/TR.jpg

Steve
S/V Albireo
P40 #57 1984

[William Ennis]

Impressive! What kind of weather does this thing endure? How much time has it been unvarnished?

Thank you for the photo.

Bill Ennis
S/V Wings
P40 #78

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"Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies." Friedrich Nietzsche

[Ian Macrae]

Wood typically has two annual growth rings, one harder and one
softer. What I've seen with soft woods such as fir left unprotected
to weather is that the edge that has been cut across the grain shows
erosion of the softer rings leaving the harder growth rings standing
proud. Teak is a harder wood with finer rings than fir, but I wonder
if the same thing wouldn't happen if you left your teak cap rails
exposed for some years. I've got no idea how long it might take
before unprotected teak goes physically downhill but would suspect
only a few years. Then you have a lot of sanding to do to bring it
back, and after several cycles you or the next owner may wish for a
little more wood in your cap rail. The natural cycle of unprotected
wood is to rot away, some wood rots more quickly than other wood.
Think of the next owner and the owner after him.

The reason why people have those fancy fussy covers made for their cap
rails and use them when they aren't sailing maybe isn't so that their
rails always look good, but rather to avoid all that labor every X
number of months. Also, myself, I prefer Cetol to varnish. It may
not look quite as beautiful when fresh (it does look pretty darn nice,
you can get it to a B+ or A- compared to varnish) but because the
labor involved in refreshing and refurbishing it is so so much less.

Ian

[Donal Botkin]

When I bought View[ + ]Finder in 1997 she was a dock queen--brightwork all tucked in under little canvas covers and not much in the way of sea time. Two years later we were on our way to what was to become a five-year voyage to New Zealand and back to California. Six months into the trip the varnish was history, mostly due to the unavoidable dings that come from being under sail on the open sea. I tried Cetol, but found the best results from a light application of varnish cut 1:4 with mineral spirits. Reapplication is necessary after a few months, but damage is minimal as there is no build-up as with "real" brightwork, so the job is confined to light sanding and application with a lint-free cloth. BTW, the 1:4 mix is what is sold as "teak oil" for a premium. Is it as pretty as a varnish job? No, but much more forgiving of minor damage.

After returning from our trip, I'm embarrassed to admit that things slid a bit and the teak went to grey and stayed that way for several years. This week we completed the re-work of the teak hand rails and the application of the first oil coat. Sanding was needed, but just to remove the thin layer of grey. Total time on the job for the four grab rails: 15 hours over the course of a week using a Festool vacuum sander (worth every penny paid) and a heat gun (to remove residual varnish) followed by a Dremel tool to get at the tricky spots. Note that the time includes the breaks attendant on working on a boat in the sun, lunch and the celebratory libations on completion of each days work.

The appearance is like oiled wood (duh!), not varnish, but no one would mistake it for plastic as with Cetol's hazy effect. Finally, if you like grey teak, the best way to maintain it is with a liberal application of clean salt water, applied daily if possible. The salt closes the grain and discourages the growth of wood-eating microorganisms. Available for free with every day on the open sea.

View[ + ]Finder
Donal Botkin
1 Peninsula Rd, Gate-B
Belvedere, CA. 94920

[Michael Dobbs]

I have to second the motion for CETOL.  I am just now touching it up, after applying 2 coats of Marine Light and 2 coats of clear almost a year ago. 
 
> Date: Thu, 29 Jul 2010 08:07:18 -0700
> Subject: [Passport] Re: Hand rails / Cap rail / Varnishing
> From: versin...@gmail.com
> To:

[Ian Macrae]

As stated in my first post here, I don't know how long it takes naked
teak to break down in the weather. Every time one of the sequential
owners sands the cap rail to get the gray off, another layer of wood
is gone. Maybe it would take 50 years before a noticeable amount of
wood was gone, maybe a lot fewer.

Donal, I notice you went back to a protective coating, too. I love
varnish and put it on stuff, but reapplying Cetol (assuming things
haven't really gone deeply downhill) is even easier than what you
describe, as seconded by Michael in his post. And the new Cetol clear
gets rid of the haze and makes it a bit more like varnish. I might be
wrong about this, but think I read somewhere, maybe in a test in
Practical Sailor, that the clear has the most UV protection of the
various Cetol products. That is from an old memory, so maybe not
reliable.

Ian

[Louis Raphael]

Re: Cetol.
After the initial color coats on bare wood, color is never applied again
(except for a repair).
The clear is harder and has better uv protection than any of the colors.
Each year I rub the area with a 3M pad, clean with Acetone, brush on the
clear coat.
BINGO THAT'S IT.

Louis Raphael
Buttermilk