Bow Teak repairs

Pleased to be able to repair damage to the bow of Alhambra. Damage caused during the Mankhut major typhoon.

Routing to create a seat for the new bow.

Next task – shaping time.

Bow Bedroom Bettering

I suppose the first thing to address is: is Bettering a pretend word?
I don’t know, I get it, and I bet you do. So we are all good.

This tale is about the bettering of Alhambra’s Bow Bedroom.

Not unusual on a boat are nasty termite annoyances. Sadly the Bow Bedroom became a mild casualty of termite lunacy.

A project to end the termite and repair the resulting damage began.

Damaged floorboards, under support structure and storage wall

Naturally, this starts with termite extermination.
Thanks to Pest Guy and a nine-month plan, we have been able to stop the colony’s wood-eating frenzy.
Termite dining damaged wooden support structures underneath the Bow Port room floorboards. The feasting had also eaten away at the storage cabinet’s lower surface.

Sketching the repair areas.

Though not massive damage, it was enough to become quite the challenge.
To help clarify my path forward I crafted a few repair sketches – thanks Noteability.

A few more sketch details to help me clarify work ahead

In addition to repairing the floor and wall the hull storage underneath the Bow bedroom required a tidy up.
We rearranged the stored content into 15 plastic storage boxes. Each with dehumidifying bags stashed inside.
Much better.

Side wall repair and painting plus replaced floor support timber.
No longer weak 🙂

With the hole in the port side wall filled with fibreglass, sanded and repainted and the replacement underfloor support timber sealed firmly in place. It became time for new floorboard sections to be crafted and placed.

A view of the port wall repaired. Side underfloor support in place and the corner underfloor support in place. Black caulk replaced between boards.
Painted, sealed and ready for new floorboards to be cut and placed.
Exciting to have the floor restored to a stable condition.

The corner area that needed two smallish replacement floorboards.
The termites had actually eaten the original boards.

New Teak pieces provided by
Sun Hing Shing.
SO thankful to Eric from SHS.

I am pleased to show that the boards were cut, placed and varnished with three coats of International varnish / Satin finish.
It’s good to know that the corner section of the room has been returned to a quality level.

Returned to stable and clean – next…

With that done it is time to move onto the room lighting, curtains and window sealant.

Return of the Orange Kayak

Pre-Covid trickery, I was paid an orange Bic ‘Scapa’ sit-on Kayak and paddle. An avenue towards health, strength, wellness and cruising around near the sea. The Kayak became a frequent and enjoyable hobby.

Facing the Lamma Channel, outside of Aberdeen Typhoon Shelter, Hong Kong

I’m not attempting Military Kayak drills (Sorry Brodie) but have thoroughly enjoyed my outings to date.

Sadly a local Sampan sideswiped the Kayak. The side pressure resulted in the Kayak’s Starboard top centre edge exploding open.

This is what happens when a sampan sideswipes a Scapa kayak.

Knowing it would be skirting near danger to use the Kayak in such a condition, I removed it from the water and added a Kayak repair project to my to-do list.

Many years ago whilst teaching technology literacy to HKIS Middle Schoolers, I recall coming across a great video resource that rapped amongst graffiti to how the internet had infinite power to educate.
Enough said: search ‘Plastic Kayak repair’

So I needed to get a Plastic Welding Iron, orange Polyethylene strip, wire mesh. It was surprisingly tricky to pick up a Plastic Welding Iron (not a soldering iron) in a hardware shop.
Of course, the internet saved the day.

The crucial tool – large surface area tip.

Tooled up, I set about repairing the Kayak.
To start, I carefully spot welded the split together, gradually melting the two sides together. With the edges together, I melted a steel mesh across the top ridge and sides. And finally, I welded five twelve-inch by quarter-inch orange Polyethylene plastic strips across the area.

Orange strips of Polythene Plastic. Packs of five.

NOTE: take care as you melt the plastic’s together. The plastic will melt away quickly, and you’ll end up with an unwanted hole in the Kayak if you’re not careful.

I must add that I have not spent any time attempting to address cosmetic issues attached to this repair.

I was surprised how dark the plastic became once melted.

With ropes replaced and the hull finely sanded, the Kayak has returned to the sea.

I hope the repair is strong enough to deal with the sea.
I will find out.

and it‘s all good.

A little effort…

Some time with a heat gun, sander, elbow grease and things start to get better. Helping a friend tidy up an upper deck teak table. Getting there.

Teak sealant – product testing – DONE

It is always satisfying to be able to say “Done”.
Both decks, the Stern lower shelf deck and the Stern entrance deck have been sanded, caulked, cleaned and sealed.

Two products have been used:

Mattco has been used on the Stern lower shelf deck. Easy to apply and quick to soak in / dry. The product has a very slight amber grey tone to the finish.
At this stage I am thinking value for money.
Time will tell.

The Semco – natural tone has been used on the Stern entrance deck.
Again, easy to apply, quick to dry and even better – water based so the brush can simply be washed with warm soapy water.
The product finish is great, a amber glow remains in the teak.
It is a slightly more expensive product but at this stage I’m leaning towards it as a better choice.

Semco offer colour tones but Hong Kong will not permit them into the region as they contain damaging elements. I like how the product is also environmentally sound (ish).

I began with a plan to compare products, improve work efficiency and product effectiveness.
My new caulking applicator has enhanced the caulking process heaps. The Teak Decking Systems SIS 440 caulk sausage is also a grand choice.
The use of water based product has also saved a load of phaffing about with cleaning brushes.
The product effectiveness will be shown over time.
As already said. I prefer the finish to the Semco product.

All good.

Teak sealant – product testing Pt 2

Photo by Denys Nevozhai on Unsplash

With Hong Kong heating up to a sweaty 31 C with 80 per cent humidity, this becomes a new game…

Pt 2 onwards includes recaulking, sanding – again and cleaning.
Prepping for the sealers.

As I began this project I wanted to focus on increasing efficiency and tool effectiveness.
Searching around for recaulking wisdom, I came across a YouTube video in which a chap was recaulking a large teak deck on a superyacht. With old caulk being removed he suggested not ‘taping’ either side of the planks prior to adding the caulk. Instead, trowling off extra caulk and sanding of the excess when dry. Reasoning that the time taken to tape would be a comparative waste of time.

OK then, I’ll try that and see.

Bad idea, sanding off the caulk was a complete pain and time-eater.
I will now always, adding tape and trowel too, ensuring I scape off ALL excess.
Also, remove the tape before the caulk dries and lightly sweep with trowel again to seal to wood edges.
Sanding when dried.

Lesson learnt and the future efficiency box ticked.

As shown above, the caulk application gun (top) which contains a Teak Decking Systems sausage of caulk has been a great tool upgrade.
The Teak Decking Systems SIS 440,  sausage of caulk holds 592ml of quality caulk. That’s loads more than the tube below.
The applicator gun trigger mechanism made the application easy, with no RSI issues after emptying the entire sausage.

So that was the Tool effectiveness box ticked – yeah.

I must say I was excited to clean both decks, the Stern lower shelf deck and the Stern entrance deck. This being the last step before applying the Mattco Teak Sealer to the Stern lower shelf deck, and the Semco Teak Sealer to the larger Stern entrance deck.

I used the Teak Decking Systems ECO 100 Teak Cleaning Powder to clean both decks.

We’re ready to seal and it starts to rain – ugh.

Teak sealant – product testing Pt 1

I am aiming to clarify which I consider a better Teak sealant.
The contestants are:
One: Mattco Teak Sealer
Two: Semco Teak Sealer
Three: Star Brite Teak Sealer

The Mattco product is the cheapest of the three products (HKD 298). The Star brite being almost twice the price of Mattco product, and not surpisingly the Semco sits in the middle.
I am not going to simply launch myself onto the idea that the most costly will be the better product.

I have used the Star brite product on many occasions and it is indeed a very effective product. I used the darker of the teak sealer products and it amost felt like paint. Even the caulk was sealed, and coloured.
At half (+) the cost of Star brite, I am curios to see how the Semco and Mattco compare.

I have 2 teak decks that I am going to use as a direct comparison.
One, Stern entrance deck
Two, Stern lower shelf deck

So here we go.

May the first, twenty twenty marks three years since I resealed Alhambra’s stern entrance Teak deck.
It’s time to do it again. The difference I am hoping for this time is improved work efficiency and product effectiveness.

The process will be:

• sanding,
• caulk removal/replacement,
• sanding,
• washing
• sealing.

For sanding, I am using a Makita BO5031 Orbital Sander with
60 & 150 grit  5″ sanding discs, and lots of them.
With absolute respect for safety, I wear a full face respirator with earplugs.
After sanding for nearly 2 hours – it becomes a weird space… and a relief to get the mask OFF.

At this stage, we (my wife has been helping 🙂 have sanded and removed the cracked and leaky caulk from the Stern entrance deck.
Next step is to recaulk.

I will update when both are done 🙂

Railing upscale

The grey flakiness of the sun hammered varnish is the sign to get the old Makita Orbital out again. Not that it had been put away at all…
With the main deck woodwork all varnished nicely and thoroughly, it is time to start working on the upper level. So, the railings on the staircase are the first stop.
Originally I thought I could get away with doing the sanding / varnishing with the railings remaining in place. Wanting to do a thorough job with the upkeep, leaving the railings in place and sanding effectively wasn’t going to be possible. So down came the railings and the sanding begun.

I must say that I am getting much faster at dealing with this woodwork game.
Using the Teak stand thingie as a work bench, I managed to sand down to all four railings to clean wood with the help of a brutal 40 gauge sanding disc. Once roughed up and free of the old varnish, i brushed a healthy coat of  International thinner / varnish 30 / 70 to the back to the railings.
A good day’s work 🙂

Only another 5 coats to go …

Stern panel tidy-up

I’ve chosen to put my Resin River Table project on hold for a while, and focus on tidying up the wood railing panels on the stern of Alhambra. As with all the woodowrk on the dear old Alhambra, there’s loads of it.
Knowing the amount of sanding that’s required to prepare surfaces for varnishing. I’ve split the workload into 2 tasks, Port side first.

I’ve come to realise that the sun’s force requires wood surfaces to be maintained on an annual basis. Aiming to push the life span of the applied varnish, I plan to maintain a high quality protective coating of varnish when dealing with external surfaces. I’ve chosen to work to a five layer application every time. Time consuming but hopefully durable and long lasting. To date, I’ve been using International products to do the job.

So far, so good.
Completing the port side, today’s seen the start of the Starboard side. Removal of the access articles has made me popular… Oh well.

I must say that I find doing this sort of maintenance / restorative project a great thing to be doing.
The teak wood looks great with a little care.

With summer on it’s way I plan to work on sorting out the upper deck area – eeekkk.

It’s time to sand and revarnish the outside wooden surround.

So it’s railings off, sanding required and a three course Marine varnish to be applied.

The term “lifelong learning” springs to mind as I live the life onboard Alhambra. In this situation I speak about the maintenance of outdoor varnished woodwork

The exterior varnish on Alhambra is showing signs of being relentlessly beaten by the elements. It’s bow

Removal of the railings arching around the bow of Alhambra resulted in the chosen M&S biscuit tin housing a good 100 screws. A surprisingly time consuming task pleasingly sped up thanks to the cordless drill’s 18 inch screwdriver bit.

With the railings removed, accessing the surface for sanding and recaulking (in places) was easy. To start the process and remove the history of Marine varnish, the Makita Orbital sander, a range of sanding disc (60 to 120) and I set to it.