We've been doing a long term summertime project on NAKIA that I thought you'd all be interested in. We're removing the teak decking from everywhere except the cockpit. This is a long multi-step process which, ultimately, will prepare the deck for gluing down new non-skid fiberglass panels. The process goes as follows: First I take a small chisel and a hammer and remove the wood plugs which seal up the top of the screws. The plugs are about 3/8" of an inch wide and 1/8" deep. This turns out to be about the hardest part because the plugs are very well glued into the deck. In fact on a lot of times, the only thing sealing the screw is glue, the plug having long worn away. After removing the plugs from 150 or so screws, I take my drill driver and remove the screws. This is the fastest step - power tools are great! When all the screws are removed, the hard work begins. Using two pry bars, a couple of wood chisels, a heavy duty putty knife, and a big, heavy hammer I pry the teak planks from the underlying fiberglass. This is usually a challenging effort because the black caulking used to seal the teak planks to the fiberglass is still in pretty good shape and the teak is not in very good shape. Between the strong glue and old wood many of the planks break in the process of being removed, leaving a lot of splinters and short pieces. Once in a while I can actually pull an entire plank without it breaking. Once all the planks are off Linda and I go back over the fiberglass and scrape off as much of the black caulking as possible. The rest will be sanded off later. With all the screw holes open, I take some penetrating epoxy (a runny glue which soaks into wood and fiberglass and then hardens) and squirt it into the screw holes using a small syringe. That's left for 36-48 hours to cure and then I go back and drill out all the screw holes using a counter-sync bit to make a larger surface area for the filler to adhere to. I mix up some epoxy and thickener and then push it into all the holes. This cures over night so the next day I can finish off the job by sanding all the excess epoxy filler along with the left over black caulking. This is the dirtiest step with all the sanding dust blowing all over the place. Finally I vacuum up the dust and Linda wipes down the deck with a sponge and water and we're left with a clean smooth white deck.
Why, you may ask, are we doing this? The primary reason is heat. The teak decks are hot-hot-hot! If the mid-day sun is on the teak it's impossible to stand barefoot on the deck; you have to wear shoes to protect your feet. Also the teak is dirty. It holds dirt and mildew and slowly distributes it to the rest of the boat. So we're hoping that after the removal/replacement process we'll end up with a cooler, cleaner, and lighter boat.
We'll know for sure this winter when we're all done and the deck is newly painted.
John and Linda