Teak deck renovation continued (and completed) 2020

Last year I restored most of the teak deck, but did not finish on the starboard side. That was the job for this spring. As usual, I was a bit too optimistic about the time. The boat wintered in the marina, under canvas. This gave some challenges as to when and how I could work. Luckily, there were some periods with good, dry weather. Here is a series of pictures.

It starts with removing the stanchion bases, which I did late 2019. I had them reinforced and remounted them in June this year.

Removing the stanchion bases was much easier than putting them back on!

Ready to continue in March.

Removing teak. The good thing with dry weather (for boat maintenace) is that it doesn’t rain. On the other hand, it normally means very low water. A bit awkward to work from the quay then!

Planing and cleaning the teak

The deck is built up of a 7 mm layer of fiber glass, then 15 mm balsa wood, another 7 mm of fiberglass, and on top of that, the teak. The teak is fastened with thousand screws through the upper layer of fiberglass. A sure source of moisture into the balsa. On this boat, almost the whole deck was dry in the middle layer, only a small spot on the port side, and some more on the starboard side, had this problem. I cut out the upper layer of fiberglass and dug out the wet balsa.

The rest of the balsa is good (I checked by drilling holes). The voids had to be filled, covered with new mat and epoxy, sanded, filled, sanded again, and the teak glued back on. The following pictures show the process. Also, there was a leak around the filling pipe for the water tank, and the drain. That is now sealed.

Stanchion bases back on. As I said … And new teak pins for the cleats were turned. The rail is oiled with Hempel teak oil. The deck is just washed lightly when needed and rinsed with sea water. There is still some general cleaning and polishing to do, but other than that, she is ready for the summer!