Charm's Teak Facelift

Through a combination of general neglect and back problems, the exterior teak on Charm had just plain gone to heck. When we returned to Mazatlan in November, before I could inspect the boat to see how it had weathered the summer storms for damage, my eyes went straight to the toe rail and coamings. Disgust. Cringing. OMG. The Cetol was practically all gone. What little finish was left was crinkled, cracked and peeling. 

So the next question was "what am I going to do? More Cetol, Varnish, some kind of teak oil?  I decided to first walk the docks here in Marina Mazatlan and see what looked good on other boats. Since I tend to gravitate to Island Packets, I walked down dock 6 to see what the finish looked like on Ecco Bella, an IP 35. Well, it looked like it had been perfectly finished yesterday. It was gorgeous. I knew that Rick Cummings' crew (Cape Starr) had done the work the prior year, but didn't know if anything had been done since. Rick assured me that Ecco Bella had not had any protection or any touch up since last year's job of applying 10 coats of Epifanes High Gloss Varnish. He said that needed to have 2 new coats now each year, but so far the owners from Tucson hadn't returned, so what you see is what you see from last year's job. 

I asked him to come to Charm and give me an estimate. He looked things over and explained what would be done. Scraping down to bare wood; sanding from progressively heavy to light so that the wood would be ready for the varnish. His crew would remove all the non-backed stainless steel and send it to the shop for cleaning and buffing. The 10 coats would each have a light sanding in between with 220 grit paper. Finally, a bead of caulk would be applied to protect the toe rail from any water intrusion. I knew how much work this would be so was almost afraid to ask the price. But the price was reasonable and they could start work on the 16th of December. 

Marcy and I moved off the boat on the 16th and checked into Costa De Oro in the Tourist Zone for old time's sake--we had stayed there about 30 years ago on a vacation. We stayed two nights and then flew home for Christmas. When we returned on the 30th, Beto and helper were up to the sixth coat. 

It was looking terrific!! They told me that had it not been for a couple rainy days they would have been much closer to completion, but I was all smiles. 

Each morning about 7:30 Beto and friend would show up and knock on the hull to ask permiso to come aboard and wipe down the overnight dew. After that they would disappear until about 10:00 am when they returned to do the .220 sanding, cleaning and next coat of varnish. The Mexican skilled laborer is an upbeat person. They are smiling, chatting and happy in their work. It's good.

 The finished product is just beautiful. Beto told me this morning that his work was done and he had another job lined up. I shook his hand, complimented his work and took a few pictures. And the compliments are already coming in. They don't have to advertise to get more jobs. The owners like me will do all the advertising necessary.