I do not know the age of the boat you are considering, but having owned a boat with teak decks in
Florida, I would consider teak decks a deal breaker if I were planning to keep the boat in the tropics,
live aboard, or do distance cruising. I know that this runs counter to many of the popular thoughts on teak, but over the many years that the boat was in our
family, a variety of treatments were used and each seemed to require very frequent retreatmant (something like every 4 to 6 weeks). Allowing the decks to go grey eventually lead to the need to replace bungs and allowed
water into the fastenings rotting out the subdeck and deck beams. The teak decks were unbearably hot to walk or sit on and continued to radiate heat above and below deck long into the evening.
My experience with teak over glass decks is that they have a limited lifespan before a major
rebuild is required. Depending on where and how the boat is used and its original construction, that lifespan can be as little as 10 years and as long as 20 years. Teak decks can mask problems occuring in the deck
core below so that a deck failure can occur without warning, unlike with a glass deck where
delamination becomes readily noticable.
Respectfully,
Jeff