Teak - Refinishing with Honey Teak

[Sans Wind]

I have an 1987 Seafarer 22 and am looking to refinish all the teak trim inside the cockpit and around the deck of the boat. I have done a bit of research and have decided to give the product "honey teak" a try due to its reviews of low maintenance and long life. What I really want is to convince myself to maintain it with oil but I know its just a matter of time before I am tired of frequently applying it throughout the season. I am just posting to see if anyone on here has any experience with this product and what they did throughout the season to keep it looking good. Any opinions on applying it to a swim platform? My concern is that it may become slippery.

Thanks in advance

 

[Legend]

I don't have any teak on my current boat but when I had a Seafarer I was never happy with using oil - It just would not last - I started using a product called Sikens - It looked great and would last for seasons. I have heard that the new improved product is even better

 

[Curmudgeon]

I have a Tournament 22. While there are many teak finishes around, longevity of all depends on time in the sun. I gave up and just remove mine every few years and lightly sand. I also compounded out the slop-over left from the last owner's less than neat application of something or other ... :?

 

[Sans Wind]

@ legend. Have you ever used sikkens on a horizontal surface? How slippery is it when wet?
Honey Teak directs you to apply 2-3 base color coats then an additional 2-3 coats of clear. Do you think I could put in some kind of clear nonskid underneath one of the clear coats?
I stripped all the wood of the previous owners product. Just looking for something to do for the off season after I winterize next month.

 

[JeffN]

sans wind - If legend is referring to the Sikens Cetol I second his results. I used it on my teak three seasons ago and will need to redo the teak in the cockpit this winter. The teak under the enclosure around the helm area and the cabin still looks like the day I did it. The stuff aged great. I used the Natural Light shade. I believe they have a few shades. One was described as too orange in tint, the one I used is lighter and since then I think there is a new color. I wish I had found the stuff years ago. legend - did you do your swim deck with Cetol? If so what were your results? At the time I did mine I reseached on the boating sites and the general consensus was not to do the swim deck with Cetol. I used what I had been using for the teak previously - a starbrite product that works OK. I get one season on the swim deck, and the look is not as nice as the Cetol.

 

[Fish Tank]

Teak finish is a matter of personal opinion for many.
I did the cetol on a 25' Catalina sailboat I had and hated it. It took the nice color of teak and made it into an ugly orange haze.
I've done Amazon teak oil and like the results, but hated the reapplication throughout the season to make it look nice.
I currently use Deks Olje (after a few years of the above Amazon oil since I couldn't find Deks) on my 36' Pacemaker and am very happy although the initial application will take some time.
For the Grady, all I have done is Te-Ka clean it, but it too will be getting the Deks Olje over the winter.

 

[Sans Wind]

Fish Tank, What kind of life do you get out of the Deks? is your teak covered at all? just trying to get an idea of durability. thanks

 

[Fish Tank]

Usually is about 2 years before a reclean with Te-Ka and reapply. Any scuffs gets touched up in season as soon as they are noticed and that helps prolong the refinish.

In the above pic the platform was just rebuilt and had Amazon on it. The gunnel cap had been oiled about 7 months prior.

 

[Sans Wind]

2 years isnt bad with the occasional touch up. I personally dont like to use anything to aggressive on the teak as far as cleaning. i think im going to give the deks part 1 and 2 a try and well see how it lasts. would love to go with the honey teak but from what i read it is hard to apply and if i end up not liking it im thinking its going to be a pain to remove. deks is a safe first bet and looks better to me than cetol. although i havent seen the new stuff. ill try it out. thanks.

 

[JKredriver]

I have a 1986 tournament 220 and I use cetol and really like it. To avoid the orange glow, I found that I had to do a really good sanding the first time. My color is a nice medium brown and I find that I just need to lightly sand it once a year and put a single coat over the old coat. The trick is to always redo it before it looks like it needs to be redone. I do keep my boat covered most of the time. When I didnt cover it, I had to do this twice a summer. But, with a 1980s Grady, the entire task takes less than 3 hours---assuming that you do it before it starts showing the affects of sun and salt.

 

[JKredriver]

I have a 1986 tournament 220 and I use cetol and really like it. To avoid the orange glow, I found that I had to do a really good sanding the first time. My color is a nice medium brown and I find that I just need to lightly sand it once a year and put a single coat over the old coat. The trick is to always redo it before it looks like it needs to be redone. I do keep my boat covered most of the time. When I didnt cover it, I had to do this twice a summer. But, with a 1980s Grady, the entire task takes less than 3 hours---assuming that you do it before it starts showing the affects of sun and salt.

 

[Legend]

The Sikens I used did leave the teak a litlle orangy but I preferred it to letting the teak go gray - I hated putting oil on - the siken was not slippery - I haveread recently that the new sikens has a very pleasing color and is clost to natural teak coloring. I have not seen it live jsut reading reviews - worth taking a look at - as I said earlier it was very durable/long lasting and if the color is improved who knows