Replacement of Teak

jlwMD

New Member
I have a 1988 Capri 14.2 and the teak on either side of the mast is aged beyond repair. Any ideas on securing replacements?
 
I've never rep[laced mine, but have two suggestions.

First, you may be surprised at how well teak responds to a good sanding and varnish/oiling. The reason they use it on boats is its resistance to rot.

Second, if you can find one in your area, se eif you can find a good woodworking shop in your area and bring them the old ones to see if they can make new ones. My grandfather owned a woodworking shop and was always fabricating parts for boat owners. If you can't find a good wordworking shop, then maybe you can get some teakblanks and find a good carpenter to fabricate them.
 
The teak on my 1988 14.2 was also shot when I got it. As as noted above, teak is amazing stuff - can be restored to like new unless its splintered to nothing. First, take it off the boat - all 3 pieces. To do that, first dig out the teak plugs that hide the screw heads....seems there are 4 or 5 on each side and the same on the bar over the cuddy hatch....if you lightly sand the top surface you will see the circles indicating the plugs. I used a small screwdriver to dig 'em out and don't try to save them. Now take the teak to a workbench and start with #80 grit sandpaper amd an orbital palm sander, or just a sanding block. Once smooth all over, go up to a 120 grit, then keep going up in grit until it suits you. Now use a good teak cleaner (actually sudsy ammonia works good), then bleach the teak. If you want to buy a teak cleaning kit, fine, but the sudsy ammonia followed by 50/50 Clorox & water will work just as well, and we are not talking about much teak. Let the teak dry for a day or so indoors.

Now that you have them real nice & clean, start applying teak oil with a rag, never use a brush. Rub it in and it will take a half dozen coats to soak it well. You will be amazed at how good it looks. Now to reattch the teak, I decided to leave the screw heads exposed and use stainless finishing washers. I used new oval head 316 stainless screws and finishing washers and it looks very slick, and now the teak can be removed easily for cleaning.

A few of my original screw holes into the boat were sripped and I used an old trick to fix them: drill out the hole to say 3/8" and cut a short 3/8 dowel and lightly sand it to fit snugly in the new hole. Epoxy the plug into the new hole and let it set, then re-drill your pilot hole and its good as new.

More ways to skin a cat than feed it melted butter....

Vic Roy
 
re-finishing your teak

I just want to let everyone know of an easy way to remove the teak plugs to access the screw heads. A factory rep was working on some leaking toe rails on a new boat which requires over 50 plugs be removed. He did this with a battery powered drill. He chucked a sheatrock screw with the head removed into the drill. A quick squeeze of the trigger and out comes the screw. The screw stops penetrating when it hits the metal screw and pushes the plug to the top and out with absolutely no damage to the teak. Charley
 
Good tip, Charley. Me & some buddies were stuck on a houseboat in the boondocks for a week with a case of wine and no corkscrew. A sheet rock screw into the cork with the cordless drill then pull the cork with some vise-grips saved the day.

Vic Roy
 

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