Dear Group,

Please allow me to express my opinion of the fanatic care and feeding of trim
wood on sailboats.

1) Those who spend time, effort and dollars on so-called 'brightwork' are more
interested in showing than going. DSK is a good example of this stupidity with
his bragging about all the time his wife spends on the varnishing. Please note
that this maintenance time is down-time.

2) If the wood is functional, such as the spreaders on Joe's fine, blue-water,
steel vessel, then, by all means, do take care of this functional wood in any
manner which preserves it the best. If you like the way several coats of varnish
looks and don't mind the extra work then use varnish. On the other hand, if you
are more interested in longevity and protection without the constant work then
use a quality enamel paint to cover and seal the wood.

3) Teak trim on a sailboat is just that - trim. It is unnecessary and just makes it so
you need to spend more time maintaining and less time sailing (or motoring as in
the case of DSK). Fools like Doug would rather walk up and down a dock and
criticize the brightwork on other boats and compare it to theirs than spend time
actually using their boats for the intended purpose which is NOT a constant,
futile, never-ending cycle of brightwork maintenance. Even allowing his wife
to do the brightwork when Doug states he would rather paint the wood shows
he is no man.

4) Real sailors replace all wood trim with plastic or they prepare the wood carefully
one time and then paint it with a quality paint (or they remove it). If the painted
wood is in an area where it can wear (such as foot traffic, line chafe, etc.),
then the wood should be protected with steel. (Joe is smarter than most of you,
face it!)
Please check out how I painted and protected the two pieces of teak that remained
on the deck of my fine vessel. Click on the following link and scroll down toward
the middle where a photo of the companionway hatch is shown (sstrim.jpg) and you'll
note the teak is painted white (with Petit Easypoxy) and protected from foot traffic
by a polished stainless steel strake. http://captneal.homestead.com/littleperfections.html

5) I have tossed the constantly-rotting, teak, cockpit locker covers and replaced them with
maintenance-free plastic. http://captneal.homestead.com/bristol.html
I will replace the teak-faced, plywood, companionway washboards with the same white
plastic (Star Board) as soon as they rot out more and become unserviceable.

I will never spend one more dollar or one more minute of my sailing time varnishing exterior
wood. It is a never-ending waste of time and money. People who spend any time, whatsoever,
doing their "brightwork" are not sailors but pretenders who show off their brightwork
because they cannot show-off their sailing skills because they don't have the time to develop
any. I find people who have their priorities all wrong like this totally boring and disgusting.
They impress me about as much as some conceited, fat fool wearing a bunch of heavy, gold
chains around his neck and they share similar personality traits - all show and no go!

I hope this helps put things in the proper perspective.


Respectfully,
Capt. Neal
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do
than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor.
Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. -- Mark Twain






"Capt. Mooron" wrote in message news:w%iXd.9210$ZO2.3913@edtnps84...
Since it's approaching... well okay it's at least a month and a half away
for some of us... time to consider what approach to use on the vessel's
wood trim this year, I thought I would start the annual ASA wood treatment
thread.

There are those who use Varnish, those who use Cetol, those who use Tung Oil
and some of you that use your own secret recipe.

What is your preferred method and how do you apply the finish?

To start of... I have used varnish, and wasn't convinced that the work to
produce such luster was worth the effort of application for one season of
duration. I've even tried cetol and was not impressed with the results on
both occasions. For years I simply used Teak Oil or Tung Oil and kept a kit
aboard for touch ups as required. It's easy to apply and clean up is no
problem. The woodwork shows a nice colour and retains it's texture. Last
season I applied teak oil and let it dry before applying a coat of clear
Behr deck waterproofing, UV inhibitor sealant. It seemed to work since I
had no reason to reapply further teak oil all season. Yet this year I
noticed some greying of the teak... so here I go again. What should I use
this year? Should I just give up and try another Varnish or let the teak go
grey?

CM