... Fiberglass will basically have almost no wear at all from
foot traffic. Teak will... I know this for a fact, having just removed a
20 year old teak deck.


Maxprop wrote:
I'm assuming that you didn't own that teak deck for the past 20 years,
therefore you may not know how it was cared for. Or perhaps you know it was
not cared for correctly.

The latter. Well, that may be unduly harsh... I have pretty
good evidence that it received no care at all.


... Most people are clueless as to how to care for
teak decking.

Sure. Most people are clueless, period.


....The yacht
Dorade--the namesake of the famous dorade box and cowl vent--sold a few
years ago, and its original deck was completely replaced. The wood from the
removed deck was in such good shape that much of it was used to re-deck
another boat. Dorade was one of Olin Stephens' most famous designs, built
in 1929.


Yep and a design worth studying IMHO. As for teak, one of
the reasons it's used so much on boats is that it's ppretty,
it's dense (fairly strong in several different aspects), and
it's very resistant to rot.

The teak that I removed was sought after by several
craftsmen I know, the wood itself was in great shape;
although it had caulk stuck to it & came up in pieces less
than 3' long. But hey, free teak! If I wasn't seriously
downsizing, I'd have kept it all myself.



.... which makes the best non-skid of all IMO.

Disagree, but then that's based on personal experience rather than heeding
the opinions of others. Heresy!


Mine is based upon experience as well. Most people think teak is terrible
underfoot.

Hardly.
I've very rarely heard anybody not rave about teak. In fact
I have never heard anybody else say it's poor nonskid. Ask
over at rec.boats.cruising and see what they say.

However I've sailed a lot of boats with teak decks, cared
for a variety of ways, and it struck me *every* time that if
it weren't for the caulk in the seams, walking a teak deck
would be shockingly similar to rollerskating. And some teak
decks are worse.

For a power boat, it's less of an issue. Our tugboat has
never once needed a headsail change while heeling 30 degrees
I took off our teak deck because of structural issues in the
core underneath. Many many many boats with screwed-in teak
decks get a trampoline deck when they're younger than ours.



Some layup cloth/roving/matt on the outside and simply chopper the inside.
Did you know that several lamina in the layup schedule of Hallberg Rasseys
are choppered? Disappointed me to learn that.


The only bad thing about chopper gun is that it's heavy &
overly stiff for it's yield point (ie breaks too soon
relative to how much it bends). But if sandwiched between
layers of roving, it would be just fine to build up
thickness. Less likely to wick moisture thru the laminate,
less likely to be irregularly catalyzed.

I have a buddy who used to have a 100% chopper gun canoe.
Weighed about 200#.




Those same builders never anticipated being in business years later when
those cores were soaking wet, either.


They might not have thought it made that much difference, and couldn't
afford the labor to do it right anyway.


No doubt there was some builder ignorance involved, but I suspect many of
them knew exactly what would happen. A disgruntled ex-Sea Ray executive
told a SOUNDINGS editor that the company's policy, from the 70s on, is to
use ply in the transoms of their stern drive boats, knowing full well that
it would be soaked and soft in 20-30 years. Planned obsolescense.


Well, sure. American business at it's finest. Besides, after
they sell the boat the first time, why should they care what
happens to it? It's too easy to build a "reputation for
quality" by buying lots of expensive advertising. Shucks,
this works in politics too.



Interesting to see what the results will be. Airex and Divinycell and
Klegecell and there some new German stuff that's supposed to be miraculous
but is tediously expensive are all less supject to compression failure,
and certainly less prone to rot but they are still not strong enough
to have rigging components thru-bolted to it. It may be that the caulk is
resilient enough to keep it watertight anyway, in your application.


Guess I should have explained in more detail: in the case of the sheet
stopper, I mounted a 3/4" teak backing plate and large diameter washers
underneath, and a slightly larger-than-the-stopper 1/2" teak mounting plate
on top.


OK, it may be that you've spread the compression over a
large enough area that it's not a problem. But there will be
a concentration of stress at the edge facing the direction
the line pulls from.

Hey if it works, it must have been done right!


.... While on the
subject, though, I'm surprised that honeycomb aluminum hasn't been utilized
as a core material in boats. Virtually no weight, nothing to wick mositure,
and rigid and crush-proof like a cast iron beam when between laminates. But
I suppose the stuff is really costly. I know it was (is?) used in composite
aircraft construction.

From what I've read, the issue is bonding the skin to the
core. Airplanes use some exotic technology to achieve this,
and it could be done (I believe it has been done) with some
high end boats for critical components. The easiest way to
get a good bond is to fill the cell with resin, but then you
don't have such a light structure any more!

DSK