My 1981 Chug Hwa 45 is overloaded with teak window frames, doors, trim, and, most regrettably, teak decks. I say regrettably because, by the very nature of their installation, they will almost always leak over time.
Think about it. Approximately every twelve inches a screw is driven through teak and fiberglass into the plywood underlayment. This process breeches the fiberglass sheath thousands of times. And given the pounding that a boat takes over the years, it is almost inconceivable that such a deck would not eventually leak.
I've owned CC Rider since 1985, so I'm intimately acquainted with her. Those of you who do your own maintenance know full well what I mean. When several leaks manifested themselves last year it was time to go to work.
Finding Leak Sources
My quest to track down these leaks was quite an experience unto itself. I took a Dremel tool with grinding wheel to the underside of the side decks inside several interior cabinet. This was at the inside edge of the deck. When I cut through the fiberglass I found water, or at least dampness, in the plywood underlayment of the side deck. It was a bad omen to say the least.
Since the small holes I made would be hidden from view, I left them open so that any subsequent water leakage would be evident and no water would accumulate in the deck core.
By process of elimination, I eventually ruled out the teak window frames as sources of water intrusion. This meant my leaks had to come from the deck area itself. I pulled up a half dozen suspect teak planks and re-glassed the area under them. It did not fix the problem.
Where the teak deck runs along the cabin side, I found very small cracks where water could possibly enter. I used a hypodermic needle to inject a product called "Captain's Creeping Crack Cure." The stuff works wonders for hairline cracks that are too thin for thicker products, and it looks and has the consistency of milk.
Unfortunately, this also didn't cure the problem, as the small cracks were apparently not the problem. I also used
Captain's in all the hairline cracks I found on the window frames-just in case. I inspected a number of other boats with similar problems, and looked at the various remedies utilized to fix them. The repairs ranged from painting with two-part epoxy to ripping out the entire deck, plywood and all, and redoing the fiberglass in the deck area. We are talking some big operation here!
One day I took notice of the spray-on truck bed liners and contacted several shops that do such work. I asked a lot of questions. It seemed like a viable way to solve my deck leak problems. There are several products on the market, but one product called Proliner was excluded from consideration because it is very sensitive to humidity in its application. Not good for a marine application.
After some research, one line of coatings was chosen, produced by Performance Coating Specialists, 10909 Saba Road #212, Houston Texas 77089. Their phone number is 800-821-8820, and fax is 281-922-4443. Clint Simmon was my contact.
I mailed them several small pieces of teak for coating with three similar but different products and it was soon decided to go with Speedliner over the others. The primary reason for choosing Speedliner was its superior non-skid properties. Another consideration was its adhesion ability.
We ruled out rolling or brushing on the coating, as the nonskid properties would be lost. I would have it professionally sprayed on, and, as I would later find out, it is as nonskid as the teak over which it was applied.
I decided to extend the coating across the deck and up the surrounding fiberglass approximately two inches. This would give me a good seal where the teak meets the cabin sides and along the outer edge of the teak decking, actually forming a gutter for water to run to the scuppers.
Preparation
I removed all readily-removable deck hardware, such as deck pipes, hose bibs and the like. Fuel, water, and waste deck fittings were not taken off only because access to the underside of the deck was not readily possible for all of them, so for appearance they needed to be treated the same.
The next step was to prepare the deck. On the weather deck I drilled numerous holes into the plywood core, through which I used a turkey-basting syringe to inject a two-part epoxy. The wood was not delaminating, but I thought the epoxy would displace any trapped moisture. These holes were then sealed with polysulfide. (I was very careful not to penetrate the fiberglass on the underside of the deck. I suggest to anyone doing this to mark a drill bit with tape to indicate the proper depth. This makes drilling holes faster and much less worrisome.)
The polysulfide on the teak decks was original. Over the years, the southern sun expanded it, or the teak worn enough, so that the polysulfide was now well above the teak decking. I treated it in two ways. On the weather deck!
I sanded the entire deck with 80-grit sandpaper using my DeWalt four-inch grinder. Since the deck would soon be covered with a 3/16-inch layer of Speedliner material, a few circular swirl marks were of no consequence! It was a very
dusty operation, and I wore eye protection and a cloth face mask to protect myself.
CC Ride1's samson post was carefully examined from inside the boat. A samson post is almost a guaranteed place for leaks, even though it may not be obvious, with water running into the core of the wood rather simply down the post. That is exactly what I found.
While I was at it, I strengthened the foredeck post by inserting a wood 2 by 4 on the underside of the foredeck, lag bolted to the samson post. I cut a dado in the wood block to make it fit tight up against the deck, and it eliminated the small amount of flex in the foredeck.
On the flying bridge I decided not to sand but to use a different approach. I sharpened a oneinch putty knife to a razor-sharp edge and then skinned the polysulfide down even with the teak deck. This left a hint of the lines between the teak boards, which was more a personal aesthetic touch than anything else. (My subsequent recommendation is to just sand the entire deck down to an even surface.)
A Clean Deck Is Important
More grunt work, I thoroughly cleaned the teak. Over the years I've tried every cleaner available, and have found the best job comes from copious amounts of bleach, detergent, and oxalic acid. I don't bother with expensive teak cleaners just to get oxalic acid. I buy ZUD or a similar product at my local grocery or hardware store. It's a powder, is cheap, and works like gangbusters as its main ingredient is the ever powerful oxalic acid.
The powder was sprinkled liberally (and I do mean liberally), then I used a stiff deck brush to scrub the teak decks with a vengeance. It was important to get all the surface oil out of the wood in preparation for the sealing primer.
Again, I don't worry about gouging the teak with the stiff brush because it would soon be completely.
The final step in preparation was masking the surrounding area. I was told there would be some overspray, but not as much as with paint. As I did not remove the deck fills, I unscrewed each cap, put a turn of masking tape around the threads, then screwed the cap halfway back halfway and cover the cap with tape. This gave the Speedliner a good, leak
proof seal around the fittings.tSince the words diesel, water, waste were covered, I had small plastic placards made and attach them next to each fill on the cabin side.
On the samson post, I masked several up the post so that a seal would be achieved above deck level. Since Speedliner is somewhat elastic, I didn't anticipate a problem when stress was applied to the post.
Applying The Sealer
A primer was applied and then two coats of Speedliner were sprayed on the deck. A local professional did the job over the course of two days, covering the weather deck, the f1ybridge, and all decks except back in the cockpit. He was the local franchised applicator for the Performance Coating Specialists' product.
I discovered that the tape along the edge of the applied product must be pulled up before the product dries to ensure a sharp line. In the future, I might suggest several rows of tape so all of the masking need not be removed between coats.
The second and final coat of Speedliner provided the nonskid texture.
It was rather difficult getting around the boat to pull up masking tape while the latest coat was not yet cured. It took some thought to figure how best to negotiate around the boat from the top of the cap rail and around the edges of
the bridge.
Once the final application was completed, was able to walk on it the following day.
Nice New Decks!
When I now walk around CC Rider, the feel underfoot is slightly soft, and the nonskid is 4 apparent. When it is wet, the surface about as slippery as the original teak.
As to heat, I find the deck no hotter than teak. I did use the stock gray color, which resulted in a darker deck than I would have liked. If I were to do this again, I would have the company only put about half the amount of gray tint in the mixture. This would yield a lighter color, and probably a cooler deck.
For my 45-foot pilothouse trawler, the cost was about $2,000 for the job.
Summary
Next time you pass by a pickup truck, check out the bed liner. Get up on the truck and walk around the truck liner. You'll see what it feels like and better appreciate the product. There are several similar products on the market, and
Rhinoliner and ProlineI' are but two others of which I am aware.
After a season of use, I am most happy with I the results of this project. I like the look, and performance in both wet and dry conditions. Best of all, the leaks are gone ...for good.
Since my trawler has all-teak window frames, doors, and trim, I'm now sorely tempted to cover them as well!