Shame on you all! Teak is a most beautiful hardwood and is fast becoming extinct. Having lived in Central America for five years and seeing the forests raped of their teak, I am proud and lucky to have a 46' Sun deck Trawler, built in Taiwan, and covered with teak. With the advent of Cetol, there is no excuse for destroying teak by painting it. I have had White Squall for nearly three years. When I bought it, it had wall to wall carpet on the covered sun deck, beneath which was a beautiful teak deck. I soon removed the carpet, scrubbed the teak beneath and laid on four coats of Cetol (regular, non gloss). It is as beautiful today as it was in 1997, with no further maintenance; just soap and water. The decks were all teak laid over glass. They had been let go natural, which is a feature of teak that is self preservative, to some beautiful, but to me not pretty. I scrubbed the teak decks with one of the caustic teak cleaners and brighteners, which I should not recommend repeatedly, then laid four coats of Cetol thereon. In nearly three years, under hot South Florida sun, I have added one more coat of Cetol, bringing the decks back to the same beauty as the first application. My rails and gunwale cap were varnished and in reasonably fair condition. However, I had come to hate varnish for exterior use, so stripped the varnish, laid four coats of regular Cetol and two coats of gloss Cetol. The rails look as good as a rich varnish, but can be easily maintained by touching up and blending in with Cetol gloss. White Squall will be at TrawlerFest2000 in Ft. Myers, and, as always, we welcome guests to come aboard. Capt. Howard W. Evirs, Jr. M/V White Squall

Dear Howard As someone who looks at wood sometimes 12 hours a day, I must strongly disagree with your assertion that Cetol looks as good as a quality varnish. At every trawler fest I go to I see many boats with ugly Cetol jobs. It is slightly opaque and tends to obscure the grain. My brother has a pretty 42 footer except for the Cetol, since I can speak honestly I said that a good a paint job would look a lot more shipshape. He sadly agreed. If you ever get to Solomons Is, there a largish GB owned by a boat yrd owner. Its rails are varnished to a lapidary finish. They glow, there is the illusion of depth, and the figure in the wood is finely etched. The idea that such a finish could be achieved by Cetol is nonsense. BTW, if you are concerned about the dwindling stocks of teak, why is your boat covered in it. There are prettier and much cheaper woods; I'v

> Dear Howard > As someone who looks at wood sometimes 12 hours a day, I must strongly > disagree with your assertion that Cetol looks as good as a quality varnish. > At every trawler fest I go to I see many boats with ugly Cetol jobs. It is > slightly opaque and tends to obscure the grain. My brother has a pretty 42 > footer except for the Cetol, since I can speak honestly I said that a good > paint job would look a lot more shipshape. He sadly agreed. If you ever get > to Solomons Is, there a largish GB owned by a boat yrd owner. Its rails are > varnished to a lapidary finish. They glow, there is the illusion of depth, > and the figure in the wood is finely etched. The idea that such a finish > could be achieved by Cetol is nonsense. > BTW, if you are concerned about the dwindling stocks of teak, why is your > boat covered in it. There are prettier and much cheaper woods; I've noticed > that KK and some other high end builders are using cherry and mahogany. Peter Denton

From: Sue Culbreth <asi@visionet.org> I must strongly > > disagree with your assertion that Cetol looks as good as a quality varnish. > > At every trawler fest I go to I see many boats with ugly Cetol jobs. It is > > slightly opaque and tends to obscure the grain. I have been reading about how people are using Cetol for the bright work. If you only use the gloss and do not use the Cetol pigment, you will get a finish that is clear and rivals varnish. I have posted this to the list before but here it is again. 1. Sand to bare wood. 2. Clean with a water/bleach mix and rinse. 3. First coat is Gloss Cetol and thinner. (2/3 & 1/3) 4. Sand the raised grain w/220 till smooth. 5. 3 coats of Gloss Cetol. 6. Sand w/250 to smooth 7. Last coat of Gloss Cetol. 8. Enjoy the look of Varnish in the South Florida Sun for 18 months. 9. Sand w/250 till smooth. 10. One coat of Gloss Cetol. 11. Enjoy the look of Varnish in the South Florida Sun for 18 months. Repeat steps 9, 10, 11 Morley M/V Tortuga ( CT-35, 35' Ta Chiao ) Cape Coral, Florida

A Cappella, a 40 Ocean tricabin taiwan trawler, was in neglected condition when we bought her ten years ago. The best and worst thing I did was to have a professional immediately do all the exterior teak except the deck. Starting at wood, three coats of epoxy, then three coats of varnish. The epoxy seals against water and is totally transparant, the varnish seals the epoxy from UV and provides the gloss. The result was terrific and was essentially maintenance free for several years after which I started freshening the varnish. I should have freshened the varnish on the first year, as three coats is not enough. Basically, this formula is sound and I would recommend it. There are drawbacks though. Impact damage will allow water under the epoxy if not immediately tended to. Water under the epoxy is deadly as it is trapped and will work away at unsealing the surrounding epoxy until you have blister. Fixing this is very hard as the epoxy resists sanding. Today, I use Cetol on solid wood three coats and don't worry too much if a repair overlaps the epoxy / varnish area. Then top with varnish. The Cetol seems to have a very good bond with the wood which is resistant to impact damage and is easy to repair. The Varnish seems to counter the ugly Cetol orange back to an acceptable real varnish colour. Most important of all, maintenance still must be done but local area repair can be done almost invisibly. I have been using Epifanes but I am now using Epifanes high build with really great results. Bottom line is I still have a lot to learn as I see boats all the time which have to-die-for finishes.......and professional crew. Richard ----- Original Message ----- From: Howard WW Evirs <howardevi@juno.com> To: <trawler-world-list@samurai.com> Sent: Friday, February 11, 2000 8:14 AM Subject: TWL: Re: trawler-world-list V3 #225 Painting Exterior Teak > Shame on you all! Teak is a most beautiful hardwood and is fast becoming > extinct. Having lived in Central America for five years and seeing the > forests raped of their teak, I am proud and lucky to have a 46' Sun deck > Trawler, built in Taiwan, and covered with teak. With the advent of > Cetol, there is no excuse for destroying teak by painting it. I have had > White Squall for nearly three years. When I bought it, it had wall to > wall carpet on the covered sun deck, beneath which was a beautiful teak > deck. I soon removed the carpet, scrubbed the teak beneath and laid on > four coats of Cetol (regular, non gloss). It is as beautiful today as it > was in 1997, with no further maintenance; just soap and water. The decks > were all teak laid over glass. They had been let go natural, which is a > feature of teak that is self preservative, to some beautiful, but to me > not pretty. I scrubbed the teak decks with one of the caustic teak > cleaners and brighteners, which I should not recommend repeatedly, then > laid four coats of Cetol thereon. In nearly three years, under hot South > Florida sun, I have added one more coat of Cetol, bringing the decks back > to the same beauty as the first application. My rails and gunwale cap > were varnished and in reasonably fair condition. However, I had come to > hate varnish for exterior use, so stripped the varnish, laid four coats > of regular Cetol and two coats of gloss Cetol. The rails look as good as > a rich varnish, but can be easily maintained by touching up and blending > in with Cetol gloss. White Squall will be at TrawlerFest2000 in Ft. > Myers, and, as always, we welcome guests to come aboard. > > Capt. Howard W. Evirs, Jr. > M/V White Squall > >