Varnish

Like every other owner of an old boat, I have spent many hours refinishing teak.  I have worked with varnish, teak oils, Cetol, and most recently Armada.  At this stage of our life afloat we find ourselves sailing as much as possible so we are looking for durable products that can be applied with a reasonable amount of effort.  Most importantly, the ease of follow-on upkeep is critical.

In the 2015/2016 winter season we sailed a 7000 mile loop from Maine to Colombia through the western Caribbean and back to Maine. This trip exposed our bright work to heavy sun as well as salt exposure.  The cap rails in particular took a beating.  As much as I love the look of varnish, I am certain that varnish would have started to blister and peel during this period creating an enormous amount of work to strip and re-varnish.  Teak finishes such as Cetol and Armada have the look of varnish but are more forgiving relative to upkeep and maintenance coats.  Both products call for an initial application of 3 coats.  Single periodic maintenance coats will keep the teak looking fresh.  Most importantly areas with peeling are easy to sand and re-coat.  I usually apply a spot coat on the bare areas followed by a single maintenance coat all over.

During our 2015/2016 season we had Cetol on all of our bright work and it performed well.  The cap rails required a single maintenance coat every 3 month or so but the hand rails and cockpit trim made it through the season in good shape.

Recently I decided to try Armada on my cap rails to see how it would perform.    The Armada is more clear than Cetol and looks very close to varnish.  I took advantage of mild weather while traveling through the Bahamas to strip the Cetol and apply the Armada to bare wood.  The Cetol strips very easily with a heat gun followed by light sanding.  My favorite trick is to take advantage of motoring on windless days to run my inverter (and heat gun) while the engine is churning out excess amps.

We left the boat in Georgetown Exumas at Christmas with the cap rails looking great.  Unfortunately, when we returned mid-February, the Armada was already showing signs of blistering.  After this experiment, I am switching back to Cetol.

My only complaint with the Cetol is the orange opaque coloring.  What I realized, however, is that it is only necessary to apply one or two coats of the Cetol Light (pigmented) and then switch over to Cetol Gloss (clear) for all other maintenance coats.  This keeps the finish looking more like varnish.  Like everything else with boating, there are trade-offs but Cetol provides a decent gloss appearance without the effort of varnish.