{"id":40310,"date":"2018-02-13T20:56:58","date_gmt":"2018-02-14T01:56:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/?p=40310"},"modified":"2023-05-06T17:01:45","modified_gmt":"2023-05-06T21:01:45","slug":"replacing-teak-decks-is-a-monumental-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/replacing-teak-decks-is-monumental-job\/","title":{"rendered":"Replacing Teak Decks is a Monumental Job"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Replacing Teak Decks is a Monumental Job<\/span>\n Fred Grimm<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n\n

Like many Taiwanese boats built in the 1980s, my Kaufman 47, Quetzal, was slathered in teak. Side decks, foredeck, cabin trunk, handrails, coamings \u2014 a veritable forest afloat. As someone capable of rationalizing almost anything, and because I was able to buy the boat for a great price, I not only accepted the abundance of teak, I embraced it.\nOf course I knew that practical-minded sailors scorned external wood; indeed, I was one of them before I felt the magic of teak beneath my bare feet, at least on cloudy days when the decks were not scalding. And yes, I knew that teak decks were becoming scarce on new boats and seen as a liability on older boats. But that didn\u2019t stop me from bragging about teak\u2019s unrivaled nonskid capabilities and excellent insulating properties. And I loved the aesthetic, boasting that a handsome renewable resource like teak softened the cold, oil-derived glare of a utilitarian fiberglass deck.\nI was more than a teak-deck apologist; I was a teak-deck snob.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

I bought the boat in 2003, and to my dismay, my decks started to show signs of wear and tear just a few years later. I sail a lot, around 10,000 miles a year, and the decks were subjected to cascades of seawater washing over them and the roughshod treatment of an offshore training vessel doing her job, scribbling rhumb lines across the Atlantic. Although I tried, I couldn\u2019t ignore the screw heads appearing under sprung bungs, the raised and missing caulking on the foredeck and a couple of weathered planks that had splintered. But it was a mugging in Trinidad that hastened the demise of my teak dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

I left the boat on the hard for a couple of weeks and hired a highly recommended chap to lightly sand the decks, reseat a few fasteners, replace missing bungs and caulk the worst sections. I returned to a crime scene. My beautiful teak decks had been attacked by a belt sander armed with 16-grit assault paper and smeared with black caulk. At first I wanted to cry, then I wanted to commit a crime of my own. But the damage was done, the life of the decks shortened and, when Quetzal<\/em> slinked out of Chaguaramas like a shorn English sheep dog, I vowed never again to commission work from a contractor I didn’t know, especially when I was thousands of miles away from the yard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

I kept sailing and mending as I went, but the decks became more and more of an eyesore. When they started to leak, I knew something had to be done. \nMy friends and shipmates grew weary of my incessant fretting over the decks. \u201cStop complaining and do something,\u201d I told myself, but I could not decide what to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Tearing <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n Tearing up old teak decks so they can be faired and glassed over is as time-consuming a job as it is tool-intensive.<\/span>\n John Kretschmer<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n\n

I considered replacing them with new fastener-free decks manufactured from templates and mounted with adhesives. These modern teak decks are lovely in every respect except price. When I received an estimate from Teak Decking Systems of $55,000 to $60,000, I became less of a teak-deck snob.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

I looked into synthetic teak, also known as fake teak, and was impressed by its appearance and practicality. I gathered a box full of samples and laid them on deck like playing cards. But after boasting about real teak for years, I just couldn\u2019t pull the trigger on installing a synthetic replacement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

I looked seriously at cork and invited myself aboard several aluminum and steel boats to inspect their cork decks. Cork is a natural, sustainable product, but it\u2019s also expensive, the installation seemed beyond my talents and my wife, Tadji, really didn\u2019t like the look. \u201cCork,\u201d she assured me, \u201cis for wine bottles.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

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“I kept sailing and mending as I went, but the decks \u00adbecame more and more of an eyesore. When they started to leak, I knew something had to be done.”<\/p>\n\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n

With the realization that every option required the same process to prepare the sub deck, I finally decided to remove the teak, fill the thousands of fastener holes with epoxy, and fair and then spray the decks with nonskid mixed in the paint. My teak-deck days were behind me, alas. It was on to whiter pastures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

The decision was liberating, but I underestimated what a massive job it was going to be to create a utilitarian, low-maintenance fiberglass deck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Teak <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n Weaponry included hammer drills, sledgehammers, chisels and heavy-duty sanders.<\/span>\n John Kretschmer<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n\n

I chose the boatyard at Spring Cove Marina<\/a> in Solomons, Maryland, just south of Annapolis, for the project. Spring Cove has been Quetzal<\/em>‘s home away from home, and the talented crew had already made many valuable upgrades and repairs over the years. Full disclosure, the yard is owned and operated by my sister and brother-in-law, Liz and Trevor Richards, vastly experienced sailors who have been cruising off and on aboard their Endurance 37, Wandering Star<\/em>, (including a circumnavigation) for many years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

My cost-controlling plan called for a mix of DIY and professional work. My friends and I were responsible for the destruction phase of the project, removing the old decks. Time was of the essence, as the gap in my training schedule gave us one month to complete the entire project. The doubters were plenty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

The first step was to pull the mast, haul the boat and block it up in the paint shed. Working under cover freed us from weather concerns. Next, we removed every deck fitting \u2014 every cleat, clutch, track, anything mounted directly on teak. Fortunately, designer Mike Kaufman and builder Kha Shing used several solid fiberglass islands to mount high-load winches and the traveler base. Still, this was a time-\u00adconsuming process, requiring one person on deck, one below, and the removal of just about every headliner to gain access to the stubborn nuts anchoring the through-bolts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

The next task, removing the teak, filled me with emotion. With a heavy heart and cold chisel in hand, I surveyed the once-beautiful teak deck and sighed, remembering times I\u2019d gone forward to reef the main or set the staysail, always with secure footing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Teak <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n The teak deck ready for removal.<\/span>\n John Kretschmer<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n\n

I imagined a process for removal that combined controlled physical effort with a sense of quality and renewal, something Robert Pirsig, author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, would understand. \u201cA person who sees quality and feels it as he works is a person who cares,\u201d he wrote. I cared. I was even filled with a sense of tranquility; it was going to be OK. I imagined saving teak planks and sending them to former shipmates as keepsakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

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