I do a maintenance coat of Epiphanes once a year. Rub the teak down with fine steel wool and then a tack rag and add another coat of Epiphanes.

The think the Sikken's will last longer. I believe the Sikken's goes on thinner and requires more coats.

After the first cleaning etc the swim platform needs to oil down about 4 times during the summer. Luckily Karen has taken that task. I get to supervise with a ....:beer:

I do the maintenance coat during the winter months. Gives me something to do besides sit in front of the woodstove dreaming of warmer weather.

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d4...psrq2fsvy8.jpg

I have flipped flopped between teak oil and varnish. Based on how things weathered, I settled on varnishing the door & dash trim and oiling the hatch rails on the bow and the teak inside the cabin. I got rid of all the teak where fish guts go....

Varnish on door & dash holds up for years but did not hold up out on the bow. Sanding and revarnishing is a pain so I powerwash & oil the slider rails every year. Inside the cuddy, oil lasts years.

don't use trans fluid. That's just stupid...:devil:

Refer to Inaforty's post....thats about right on what you have to do....

I pulled all the teak off the Wellcraft and sanded it down then used the Cetol and followed up with three coats of spar urethane. Took prob 60hrs from start to finish between fine sanding then oiling and then urethane'n and fine sandin in between three coats of the Urethane.....Two years and zero maintenance later(aside from rinse down) I was at the point where I "almost" had to start from scratch again. It WILL require yearly maintenance like Inaforty mentioned. Its beautiful when you keep it up or much less have the time to keep it up but I will make an oath to my Wellcraft Brotherin that I will never have teak again on another boat!!!

WORD!

So far the only suitable way I've found to deal w teak is fire treatment.... I replace it with ANYTHING else and then burn it..... My choice of hobby is boating, not boat maintenance.

That said, as mentioned it looks great when taken care of and I love seeing other people's fresh woodwork.

guess i'm old school. i like the touch of teak. gives it that "salty" look to me. i have a starboard dash & i miss my teak one.

I agree phat. I love the look of teak/wood. Nothing like a 13' Whaler that has been well kept or a V 20 with all the teak in good shape
Teak maintenance is an easy project.
I just got done replacing an aluminum fresh water tank that had to be cut up to get it out of the bilge. Fun stuff!

I use Starbrite Teak oil on my swim ladder and Captains Marine varnish on all the teak trim. Some of my trim hasn't been redone since 06 and still looks good. But my boat stays completely covered up when not in use. Im on my second Attwood boat cover, they usually last about five years before ripping open. I think the sun is wooden finishes worst enemy!

I'm in the "love the look of it but it's a pain in the a$$" camp. My 78's got it and it looks great when clean, sanded and then urethaned, but my 21's got none and I like it that way. My boats are for fishing, and anything that keeps me from that pursuit is verboten.

I'm with you smoke
teak looks great on someone else's boat, NOT MINE

cant catch anything while I'm at home oiling teak