[Public-List] Teak inlay in cockpit seats and hatch cover

[Mike Lehman via Public-List]

Stephen,

I have been through this a number of times on several Albergs. The bad part
about teak veneer plywood, is 1. over the years the veneer wears off and
you see the opposing grain for the layers below. 2. Particularly on the
seats, the perimeter leaks and water gets under the plywood and with
freeze-thaw the plywood eventually gets loose and comes out.

For the main hatch and the lazarette the fix I did on our boat #505 (Liner
boat) was similar to what Larry Morris did. I removed the plywood entirely
and installed solid teak strips with epoxy beneath and epoxy between the
joints in the strips. For the epoxy between the strips was I added a white
coloring to make it look like teak and holly. I keep my hatches finished
with Cetol Natural (now using AwlWood MA) and they look great and have held
up for 20+ years without a problem. More recently, on other boats I have
repaired, I milled 5/4 teak the strips to have an edge overlap the
perimeter all the way around, so water cannot get into the edges between
the wood and the fiberglass edges. This lip makes the wood about 1/4" proud
of the fiberglass, but has worked out well and survived the test of time.

The seats are a different story. I was perplexed why these repairs failed
around the edges and let water get under the wood and eventually pop up.
This is not the case with the seats that have to overlap on later repairs,
but did happen on my original fix. So, I once again remove the wood and
this time installed rubber imitation teak and holly on the seats, like you
find on many more modern boats. Two problems with this 1. water still found
its way under the rubber and 2. while it looked good at first, after a few
years it looked like shit (nautical term). So why do the seats fail? I
concluded that is it because we stand on the seats and that cause the seal
around the perimeter to fail. So, my permanent fix for the seat, which has
now held up for 10 years without and problems...I glassed them over. I dug
out everything; cut pieces of Coosa Board
http://www.coosacomposites.com/bluewater.htm and epoxied that in the seats
for strength. Then glassed over the Coosa Board, ground it smooth, and
painted it with KIWI Grip. Okay, so it takes some of the wood-look away,
but the Albergs have teak coamings and toe rails and hatches so it still
looks good. The seats are now strong, you can jump on them, they do not
need periodic refinishing, and the KIWI grip gives a very nice non-skid
finish so no more busting your ass while slipping on wet varnish wood.

Hope this helps.



On Wed, Feb 1, 2017 at 5:00 PM, Stephen Gwyn via Public-List <
public-list at lists.alberg30.org> wrote:

>
> Hi,
>
> My boat (Hull #495) has teak plywood inset into fibreglass for both
> the cockpit seats / locker lids and the sliding hatch. After only 45 years,
> the teak is starting to rot. The depression in the cockpit seats
> is 3/4" deep. The depression on the sliding hatch cover is 3/8" deep.
> This piece of teak has fore-and-aft cuts on the bottom side so
> the plywood can bend to meet the curve.
>
> I'd like to switch to teak battens, with black sealant in between.
>
> Has anybody done this?
>
> SG
>
>
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-- 
Mike Lehman
~~~_/)_/)~~_/)~~~