Made with a teak substitute, they’ll never need varnishing
Issue 75 : Nov/Dec 2010
When it comes to teak, there are three simple truths: new teak is gorgeous; old teak needs regular maintenance; neglected teak looks awful.
But maintaining exterior teak is something I’d rather not have to bother with. When we bought our boat three years ago, the exterior woodwork was in sad shape. All that remained of the varnish was a few flaky traces (other than the drips and overbrushed varnish on the fiberglass, that is). Since then, I have removed much of the wood, sanded it down to a fresh surface, and coated it with Cetol. But keeping it in that state requires a regular regimen of masking and recoating. I figured there had to be an easier way.
Synthetic teak deck materials are available for boats and hold up well without maintenance, but those materials are quite thin. They wouldn’t do as a replacement material for the exterior woodwork on our boat (handholds, winch bases, hatchboards, and trim). The other option is to “re-purpose” something else. Mark Parker, in the January 2001 issue of Good Old Boat (and with follow-ups in March 2002 and November 2003), described using Trex synthetic backyard deck boards cut into 1⁄8 x 1 1⁄2 -inch strips. He used these to create a simulated laid-teak deck on his Pearson Triton with very good results.
Trex is made from recycled wood and plastic. At our local lumberyards, it was the only synthetic deck board that was solid and uniform throughout. This attribute makes it suitable for machining into different shapes.
The first Trex deck boards came only in gray and weathered to a silver gray, but there are more color options now. The Burnished Amber color in their Brasilia line is a reasonable simulation of slightly weathered, unfinished teak. My lumberyard offered it in nominal 5⁄4 x 6 deck boards (1 inch thick by 5 1⁄2 inches wide) 12 feet long for $39 Canadian (about $37 in the U.S.A.) and nominal 1 x 12 fascia boards (3⁄4 -inch thick by 11 1⁄4 inches wide) for $83 Canadian (about $80 in the U.S.A.). In other words, it’s about a quarter the price of real teak. It’s also available in 2 x 4 (1 1⁄2 inch x 3 1⁄2 inch) boards. It glues well with epoxy, so larger sections can be fabricated if needed.
New handrails
My first project was the cabintop handholds. To get a full inch of material thickness, I made these from a 5⁄4- x 6-inch board. (Trex also makes 5⁄4- x 6-inch boards with grooves on the edges for hidden deck fasteners. These grooves may reduce your yield if you have to cut around them.) I used one of the old handrails as my pattern for the replacements. Our boat has four of these handrails. They all fit within one 12-foot Trex board with some material left over.
The radius blending the pads into the top rail was about 1 inch. To cut them, I used a 2-inch-diameter Forstner bit in a drill press (a hole saw in a portable drill would work too).
From there, a bandsaw or jigsaw finishes the cutting. The sawn edges will later be used to guide a router roundover bit. Since the router bit would faithfully follow any bumps or divots in the sawn edges, I sanded the sawn edges smooth with a random-orbit sander and an 80-grit disc. Although the Trex material can be cut and drilled as easily as clear softwood, sanding it is far more tedious than sanding wood, and it dulls sandpaper at a surprising rate. A coarser-grit disc might have saved some time.
I used a router with a 1⁄2-inch-radius roundover bit to ease the edges in three passes, each cutting a little deeper. More sanding with the 80-grit disc took off the machining marks but left the sanded surfaces quite whitish looking.
Hot tip
A trick, called flame polishing, can be used to finish the cut edges of transparent acrylic plastic. As a torch flame is quickly played over the cut edge, the heat melts just the very outer surface of the plastic and it smoothes itself out. I thought I’d give it a try with the sanded surfaces of the Trex, and it did help quite a bit. The surface does scorch, however, if the flame isn’t kept moving fast enough, but scorch spots can be easily sanded off and re-polished.
One of my goals with this project was to add handholds to the inside cabin roof in the main saloon. To do this, I kept two of the better teak handholds to mount directly under the new Trex handholds. Rather than using the original wood screws, I opted for 1⁄4-inch bolts to clamp both handholds to the deck. My preference would have been to use carriage bolts, but I wasn’t able to find long enough stainless-steel carriage bolts locally. Instead, I cut stainless-steel threaded rod to length and used stainless-steel nuts and washers on each end. I then glued the threaded rods into the handholds with epoxy. This prevented them from sliding in and out while I was installing the handhold, which would have dragged the bedding compound from where it was supposed to be. Regular stainless-steel hex bolts would have worked too; next time, I’ll probably use them instead of cutting threaded rod.
I counter-bored the bolt holes in the tops of the handholds to recess the nuts and washers. Making plugs of the Trex material would be possible, but would be quite a bit of work. Instead, I bought a tube of Mono exterior acrylic caulking in a beige color. It’s a passable color match, but it shrank dramatically as it dried, necessitating a second application. I haven’t plugged the inside handholds yet. Once all the exterior boat jobs are done, maybe I’ll revisit this.
Conclusion
Trex serves as a pretty good stand-in for teak. Forms of it have been on the market for many years now and it seems to hold up well with no maintenance. It machines easily with woodworking tools, although sanding requires extra effort as compared to wood. Structurally, it is not as strong as teak, but I’ve found it to be strong enough for me. I think we have a winner here and, as time permits, my plan is to replace all the remaining exterior woodwork.
Tim Nye teaches mechanical engineering and in his spare time drags home and resurrects good old sailboats. He and his wife, Elizabeth, currently own a mostly complete 1976 Grampian G2-34, Sea Rose, which they sail out of Hamilton, Ontario.
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
