20th July 2014
South Dock, London
Sumara’s teak decks are, like the good ship, 24 years old. In general I would say they are doing pretty well but they were beginning to look a little sad and dried out. Each year I replace quite a few plugs with new ones held in with resorcinol glue. I also do a few strips of caulking so the worst 5 – 10% gets redone each year. Nevertheless the timber just looks sad and uncared for. I have always been a believer in leaving teak as it is, just giving it a gentle clean across the grain or letting active deck shoes do the cleaning. So I had a choice of doing nothing and continue with sad decks or maybe try to clean them up a bit. I decided to give a couple of products a try despite them having the most appalling names – wait for it: “Teak O Bright and Clean” and “Teak O Bello” – arghh! They are both water based and didn’t sound like they would do any harm. We tried the cockpit sole first just in case and I must say I was very impressed. The cleaner didn’t seem to do much at first but the teak dried out looking very smart and the water-based top coat went on easily and gave the teak a cared for appearance without seemingly affecting the grip. It was all pretty quick and the water-based clean up helps too. Lets see how long it lasts.
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