A sailing buddy came to me looking for advice. He had inadvertently left a portlight open and a combination of rain and snow had blown into the cabin near the nav station. The finish on the teak and holly cabin sole had been compromised. The surface had stained dark in areas and the finish bubbled white in others. As a fastidious boat owner, he was hoping to re-finish the sole to factory condition. Failing that, the second choice would be replacing the teak and holly veneer with a similar product and hope that the same tint of teak and holly was available with similar stripe width.
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Compliments – I’m doing the same job on the sole of a Wauquiez Centurion 38 of ’87, and the original varnish must be some 2-component epoxy which is impossible to sand (it took me more than 1 hour @ girt 120 for a 30 x 40 cm piece), no chemical stripping possible, so I had to resort to the heat gun, and the damned varnish is “boiling up” when heated, then it re-melts and gets very hard to be stripped. The result is a dark-spotted sole which I try to uniform as much as possible using 5 layers of Epfinaes Hard Wood Varnish with two layers of Epifanes Auqa Marine Urethane sealing matt finish. Not comparable with your good job. I’m deeply envious … chapeau to your good work!
Thanks for the comment. Refinishing a factory sole is always a chancy gamble. I got very lucky with this project. I believe on the Centurion the sole is permanently fastened to the hull, not screwed down. You can’t replace individual boards like more modern soles (that squeak when trod upon!). On my own boat I refinished the cabin sole by laying another sole overtop, 1/4″ thick. I used oak with mahogany strips, the interior of the Islander is mahogany. It worked out very well but it was a lot of work. Good luck on your project!
Nice work! Articles like this are great for keeping the “practical” in Practical Sailor magazine.
What might it cost to replace the veneer with real teak and holly?
Good question. With the exorbitant cost of teak, and the milling that will be required to trim it to size, I suspect that most boat owners would reject that option out of hand. In this particular incident, trying to match the rest of the sole would have been near impossible. To look good the entire sole would have to be replaced. In western Canada teak runs around $85 a board foot.