34 Year Report… Teak and Steel

[Pelagic]

My postponed refit in Subic Bay Philippines is now back on track….. so thought it would be informative for those considering steel boats to see the good, the bad and the ugly after 34 years of salty use including circumnavigations.

First task was to find a place to do the stainless work and painting which is not allowed at the Club

The local Watercraft repair yard is a mud hole during the rains, so I find it better to set up in the water where you can manage it yourself and hire a good team.

Tying Stern to for paint access, 20ft container and work tables and it’s on!
…. hope you enjoy the photos and comments

[Pelagic]

The Major exterior task was to recoat the 8 year old Awlgrip paint job and take a look at the aging teak trim and Sanitread rubber deck compound that I installed 8 years ago

While I liked the soft flexible feel of the rubber deck, cosmetically it was hard to topcoat in the tropics and would get moldy in the rainy season.

Trying to peel back a test piece of the Sanitread, it came away from the Corten Steel deck much easier than I thought and only held on like epoxy where I had some rust issues.

Those rust places were where the Teak Trim had been screwed through the steel and had been depending on sealant for 34 years

Pulling and rolling back the sanitread.... it sort of acted like a face mask, pulling out all the rust from the good Corten steel.

I am very much convinced that if this had been ordinary steel, I would have been faced with replating under where the teak trim had been

So I decided to remove all the sanitrad, re-fair and paint the decks with epoxy products….. International / Ocean Master / AlexSeal Topcoats and think about how to replace the Teak

[cpa]

Awesome! I love refit threads. Please keep us posted.

[Pelagic]

While I was pleased that the Corten Steel under the teak trim had survived well enough, I did decide to replace the straight Top section of the cockpit combing (under the teak Cap Rail with Stainless Flat bar as that box shape cockpit seat back forms part of the Chain Plate System

The aft Corners, parhaps because they had never had chain plate loads were still like new except for screw penetration rust... so I left them as is for recoating

[Pelagic]

Next on Deck was the International Interseal 670HS Primer (2 coats) over the machined steel, hand sanding then fairing with Technifil Epoxy fairing, then sealing with Oceanmaster High Build Primer.

When the wind was ok a small armada of paint floats would start prepping the hull, which was my priority to complete first so that I could bunker and start testing the engineering and rewiring work already done.

All my tanks empty and mostly unloaded so we can paint the boot stripe in the water.

[sy_gilana]

Always where the dang holes are....

Gilana is a Corten Steel boat with Teak decks...

[Pelagic]

Yes the holes for teak fastening are the only problem I have found.

When I bought the boat, the whole cockpit was clad in teak slats, which looked great, but behind the caulking it became an unnecessary cancer.

I removed the slats in 2007 and decided in this paint job to replace the teak trim with fiberglass moldings, leaving only the fixed windows and aft railing in teak.

The moldings were first formed and epoxied in place then glass cloth wrapped and bonded to primed steel above and below for added strength.

After years of sanding and varnishing, the teak trim had worn down and lost its gutter properties.

So now I have all new moldings without any holes which hopefully, should last a few lifetimes with just a little maintenance

[Pelagic]

I also added a short fiberglass riser to the alloy deck hatches which were previously bolted flush to the deck.

The cap rail in the cockpit was attached in the same way except where the 16 stainless Bimini bolts were.

There I epoxied stainless compression pipes into the molding where thru bolted.

While working on applying and fairing the fiberglass, the hull got its labor intensive high build base coats to prep for a mirror finish.

At least 2-3 coats with long block wet sanding in between. A good trick with touch up is to reapply base coat with a large flat blade rubber squeegee to fill in any micro defects.

This is where the painters I use in Subic really excel with low tech applications and a real skill at foam rolling.
Now you know what to do with that old hobie cat

[Pelagic]

After a week of final prep the hull was ready for its first topcoat today.

I switched to AlexSeal from Awlgrip as the large yacht industry is giving it the preferred thumbs up!

I personally prefer rolling to spray applications as you get 90% of the paint applied where you want it and you save a great deal on production costs from overspray and the cost of bad shoots.

Also in the low tech…. high humidity environment of the Philippines, lack of covered facilities, poor quality air driers and Spray equipment pretty much dictates rolling if you know how and just choose your weather.

Starting at 5am, the hull is tacked off, then wiped down with a final cleaner before the brushing formula is mixed, left to season for about 15-20 minutes then tested for flow.

Two painters, two spotters then work in unison to apply the paint, changing the roller every 15-20 minutes.

Secret is in the amount of paint applied on the roller and the even pressure on both fore and aft strokes by the guy doing the final cover.

Allow the electro-chemical properties of the paint to flow out and separate the gloss from the color pigments which happens in about 20 minutes after application.

Ben who painted my boat in 2007 ended up giving me a perfectly flawless first coat with hardly any orange peel today.

On Monday, wet sanding to remove the peel and then if weather permits the final coat Tuesday morning to provide a higher depth of gloss.

Just hope Manny Pacquiao beats Mayweather this weekend as it means so much more to the Filipinos than the USA fans.

[jldunn86]

Great job, thanks for posting..

[Bill Robinson]

On a steel boat, fastening anything by drilling and bolting leads to rust problems. Wood is especially bad as it retains moisture. On my boat, a 20 year old steel Ebbtide 36, I have eliminated nearly all the holes/bolts. Most things such as stanchion bases etc are made of SS, and welded, sail tracks are bolted to SS strips welded to the deck, teak cockpit seat slats are attached with Sikaflex, similarly hatch breakwaters etc. (if high strength of bond is essential, I use 3M 5200.)
I have just finished a major repaint in Phuket, Thailand, and the boat looks very good, in fact many people ask if she is new, and cannot believe that she is steel. I used Awlgrip again, and the cost was very reasonable.

[ski69sail]

Hi There
Thanks for the thread. Just wonder how much all the labour cost for the painting ??? would be keen to get my corten steel yacht re-painted top side... thanks Ray

[Pelagic]

Lots of work scope variables before you can get a meaningful answer on labor costs
% of blister repair
% of fairing required
Standards and Methods of preparation (hand or machine)
local labor day rates
Personal involvement and management.

The big commitment I made on this recoat was to take the decks down to bare steel and as Bob mentioned.... Remove all those Teak fastenings, fill and seal holes, then fabricate and fair in new fiberglass trim moldings.

A simple recoat over a previously well applied paint job is just a light sand/2 coats of base coat/and 2 coats of topcoat with wet sanding between each coat going from 240 to 800 grit on first topcoat.

If in good shape and fair it goes pretty fast if you have s good team.

[dannc]

Thanks for posting.

Was there any rusting on the hull?

It sounds like if the teak was attached with Sikaflex, there would have been no rust?

It sure looks like they did a great job. I had hopped Manny would win too.

Later,
Dan

[Pelagic]

Zero rusting on the Hull, both inside and out.
Teak cladding.. even with Sikaflex bedding compounds induces moisture around the screw fasteners and after 35 years that was the only rust issues I found on the Cotton steel.
Lesson learned is that if I were building a new steel boat today.....NO TEAK CLADDING