Sikkens Cetol Product and Application?

[Serene]

I have done my research and decided to use Cetol on my teak handrails and gunwhale caprail, rather than re-varnish. All other teak is going to be painted 2-pack gloss white.

I know Cetol won't give me the same quality of finish, but after scraping varnish for the last three months I don't think I ever want to do that again!

Anyway the consensus seems to be three coats of natural teak and two coats of gloss. Looking for a local supplier I want to confirm I am selecting the right products, as I can't see a gloss in their marine products.

For application, is it best to use a bristled paintbrush, foam brush or foam roller?

Is this the natural teak?

https://www.international-yachtpaint.com/en/au/boat-paint-products/yacht-varnish/cetol-marine

And is this the gloss people use?

https://tenaru.net.au/sikkens/product/cetol-tgl-gloss-plus/

 

[Serene]

HHmmm...when I go to the US Sikkens site, I can see a Marine Gloss.

Cetol® Marine Gloss Wood Finish for Yachts | Interlux

But I don't see it on the AU site. Strange!

 

[Serene]

This is the equivalent AU site;

https://www.international-yachtpaint.com/en/au/boat-paint-products/yacht-varnish

 

[Insequent]

I first used Cetol back in 2012. After a few years I stopped. I once read that it was invented as a fence finish. It might be good for that, not really sure. The one redeeming feature of it is that it is easy to remove. If you do use it, probably just two coats of the natural and then 8 or so coats of the gloss will give you at least a bit of life out of it on a boat in our climate.

I've tried various things since. My latest coating of choice is Awlwood. Do a bit of searching on it. Some tricks to using it, but outstanding results. Its too early for me to be able to quote years of life, but reports are that its very good in that regard.

 

[Serene]

I have thought about the Awlcraft/Awlwood products, but thought you had to be a professional applicator to buy them?

 

[Serene]

Just reading about Awlwood now and it does look interesting. There also seems to be a tropical version of the gloss finish coat.

Which primer do you use on raw teak? The clear, red or yellow?

 

[Insequent]

I used yellow. The red is for something like mahogany. There's a chandlery at Boat Works that stocks it. At the time I was buying there was a knowledgeable guy on the paint counter who gave me the key tips. The tropical version gives you longer time to brush it on before it starts to kick and drag on the brush. Important to use that version in our climate unless you are a pro or spraying.

Pic shows Awlwood on the right, and Deks Olje on the left which was in pretty good condition but has now bee removed.

 

[boomerang]

I hate, hate ,absolutely hate anything to do with a brush. Many years ago, as the captain of a high end sport fisherman, it was a task to keep up with the varnish ,especially with the strong sun of South Florida. Maintenance was labor intensive with multiple coats and sanding each time , plus if the varnish lifted or the wood got a ding in it, it was darn near impossible to make the repair blend in with the rest of the area. I'd always used teak oil on my personal boats but when I learned of and used Cetol, I was a happy customer. Once applied, all that needs to be done is scuff up the existing coat ,wipe it down and apply another coat once every 2-3 months (I use Cetol natural & a foam brush). And if you get a boo boo in the wood, sand it down and apply multiple coats and the repair matches quire nicely.
Is Cetol a yacht-quality finish? In my opinion, no. If one has a yacht with woodwork joinery like fine furniture, varnish is the way to go. If you're a working person with a working persons boat and it isn't a showpiece but you still want it to look maintained, Cetol has my endorsement!
FYI, our current boat has teak doors, cap railings, hand rails around the decks and bridge plus some teak trim & a louvered hatch on the bridge. 1 season of sanding and teak oil was still too much maintenance, since teak oil needs to be refreshed more than varnish, lest it'll get looking bad is a few weeks. I decided to give everything the sun-bleached Palm Beach look, except the 2 doors, which are Cetol. As long as the old boat gets washed regularly, I looks fine to me and I have more time to do other stuff rather than be a slave to a paint brush.

 

[DDW]

Once applied, all that needs to be done is scuff up the existing coat ,wipe it down and apply another coat once every 2-3 months (I use Cetol natural & a foam brush). And if you get a boo boo in the wood, sand it down and apply multiple coats and the repair matches quire nicely.

What is different about that than varnish?

I don't like brushes either, and apply varnish with a roller. Much faster, with no downside compared to brushes.

 

[SeaDogAK]

I vote for Cetol. Much less finicky in its application than varnish. It might not look quite as good as perfect varnish but I think it still looks quite good. I do a maintenance coat once a year. The gloss topcoat I’ve used looks like this:

 

[boomerang]

What is different about that than varnish?

I don't like brushes either, and apply varnish with a roller. Much faster, with no downside compared to brushes.

As Seadog said above, Cetol is much more forgiving when applying it than varnish, as is the prep. But ,then again, if you're happy with the results you're getting applying varnish with a roller, no, there probably isn't much of a difference...

 

[DDW]

Properly applied with the right roller, the varnish is glass smooth and you cannot tell the difference compared to a good brush or spray job. Probably better, as it is easier to get a uniform coating thickness.

I did try Cetol and found the handling and longevity no better than varnish, and the result somewhat worse looking. That was a long time ago, perhaps they have improved the product.

 

[Serene]

I vote for Cetol. Much less finicky in its application than varnish. It might not look quite as good as perfect varnish but I think it still looks quite good. I do a maintenance coat once a year. The gloss topcoat I’ve used looks like this:

Thanks. Yes I can see this gloss marine product on the US site, but not the AU one. No idea why. Also some of the retailers I checked in AU show the natural teak but not the gloss. Very strange!

 

[Serene]

I used yellow. The red is for something like mahogany. There's a chandlery at Boat Works that stocks it. At the time I was buying there was a knowledgeable guy on the paint counter who gave me the key tips. The tropical version gives you longer time to brush it on before it starts to kick and drag on the brush. Important to use that version in our climate unless you are a pro or spraying.

Pic shows Awlwood on the right, and Deks Olje on the left which was in pretty good condition but has now bee removed.

Got it. Thank you. And the pic helps a lot.

 

[Serene]

Deks Olje was another option I considered as it is easy to source here.

 

[Serene]

[SNIP]

There's a chandlery at Boat Works that stocks it. At the time I was buying there was a knowledgeable guy on the paint counter who gave me the key tips.

[SNIP]

Marine Trade Supplies?

https://marinetradesupplies.com.au/product-category/boat-paint/awlgrip/awlwood/

 

[Insequent]

Marine Trade Supplies?

https://marinetradesupplies.com.au/product-category/boat-paint/awlgrip/awlwood/

Yes.

 

[Serene]

Been at the boatyard all day and chatted with the shipwright this morning and he is a distributor (and professional applicator) for Awlgrip products.

Said he is more than happy to order the Awlwood for me to apply.

Need to do a bit more reading, but sounds like it might be a good option somewhere between the Cetol and true varnish approach.

 

[Darlin]

Instead of scraping and sanding use heat gun to remove old varnish. Much less damage to the wood.

 

[Serene]

Instead of scraping and sanding use heat gun to remove old varnish. Much less damage to the wood.

All of the varnish is now removed. Used a combination of heat gun and scraping, but no sanding.

 

[BruceK]

Serene, I used both Cetol TGL and Deks Olje back when I had external teak panels/doors and teak cappings respectively. Once you saturate with Deks Olje #1(oil) and if desired apply #2(the optional gloss component) you get a reasonable quality easy to maintain annually finish without the need to go back to "green teak" repeatedly. Not as glossy or exposing of the teak grain as Cetol, which I successfully applied using a good quality brush, but I was willing to accept a lesser finish for significantly less work. The purchaser of my IG36 did not and took the cappings back (lots of sanding required) to a smooth full gloss finish. Finish quality is a personal choice.

 

[Jc180]

I also am a huge fan of varnish, but having a boat on the east coast of Florida(for 18 years)that has lots of exterior teak, I have grown very tired of the twice a year taping, sanding, and varnishing routine, and it’s multiple coats of varnish year! Over the years of having many different boats in other locations, I have tried many brands of varnishes, cetol, etc. When we were in the boatyard 5-6 years ago , there was another boat (from France or Italy, can’t remember)in there with a similar amount of teak and the teak looked great! The guy was out in the cockpit so I talked to him about it. He was using SEMCO Natural Teak Sealer. His teak looked like freshly stripped and sanded teak. He was still varnishing his eyebrows and cockpit coaming, but the majority of exterior teak he was using Semco. After researching I decided I would try it out. I stripped our 4 inch toe-rail, as a trial since it needed to be done anyway, and have never looked back!!! I’ve also stripped all of the handrails and gone to Semco. When we get back on the boat in another few weeks, I’m going to strip all the eyebrows and lazarette locker trim and hopefully the cockpit coaming and go to Semco. It’s a twice a year application of 3-4 coats, back to back, no taping (except on handrails that sit on non-skid) as drips wipe up clean with alcohol. I use a small piece of t-shirt dipped in the sealer to apply. The only prep I do for re-coating is to wash the teak, let it thoroughly dry, lightly sand with 220 sandpaper, wipe down with alcohol, and go at putting 3-4 coats on. I can get 4 coats (on toerail) to one side of the boat prepped, applied, cleaned up, all done and have a drink in my hand by 5:00! And we get many questions and compliments on the teak work from passersby. I would never have dreamed I would give up the varnish look for this….but here I am telling you about it! Not sorry one little bit. Definitely don’t miss the weeks of varnishing every year!!

 

[Slowmo]

I've redone the teak cap rail and railing with Cetol. As you said you do 3 coats of Cetol Marine and top coat with Cetol Gloss. I've used both foam brushes and bristle. Frankly I find a good quality bristle brush works best. As to those who claim Cetol isn't a 'yacht' finish, well no it doesn't give you the appearance of layers of varnish and it isn't transparent. However it is far far more durable and easy to maintain than varnish and to me it is a good compromise. If I owned a classic wooden boat, no I probably wouldn't use it. But for those of us who want to have something that looks nice but not spend the entire summer redoing the varnish...every year...it's perfect.

 

[Serene]

I had a good look at Semco too as it is readily available in Australia, but have decided to go with Alwood. Have the product ordered and teak prepped and ready to go. Will most likely be applying it next week sometime.

Thanks for all the feedback though.

 

[BruceK]

I had a good look at Semco too as it is readily available in Australia, but have decided to go with Alwood. Have the product ordered and teak prepped and ready to go. Will most likely be applying it next week sometime.

Thanks for all the feedback though.

There was a Clipper 40 on my previous marina, the resident cleaner/detailer prepared and maintained the teak cappings and teak decks using Semco. Note it comes in a varied range of "colours". The finish was excellent, smooth,natural, no gloss. The detailer`s reservation was that to keep ii that way it needed redoing every 3 months.

 

[Serene]

Yeah I was able to have a close look at the Semco product and colours at this year's SCIBS.

 

[RT Firefly]

Greetings,
Mr. S. Another vote for Cetol here for reaons mentioned above. ONE thing I might suggest is before you paint any teak with 2 pack is seal the raw teak well with a couple(?) of coats of varnish/Cetol before you paint. Doing so will give either you or the next owner the option of going back to varnish/Cetol without having the 2 pac soaked into the raw wood. VERY difficult to remove the ingrained paint from raw teak.

 

[Princess Shalimar]

A vote for Awlwood, decided to use the red tint as I really like mahogany color. All my purchases of the product have been over the counter. Looks mickey mouse but take note of the suggested number of coats and don't skimp or it will deteriorate quicker than expected. Where possible I removed the handrails and did them at home - much easier.

 

[tiltrider1]

My preference is Awlwood. I will say that Cetol is cheaper but that is its only advantage. Awlwood looks better and lasts longer. Application is about equal in effort.

 

[Cigatoo]

IMO A lot of people that use Cetol are looking for a quick and easy job. While I think Cetol is easier than varnish and can look ALMOST as good, Just like varnish prep is everything. If you take the quick and easy route it will look that way. No sanding is needed between any of the coats of Cetol. However starting with a well sanded surface and sanding between the coats of gloss will give you professional looking results. Here in the Northeast 3 coats of Natural Teak followed by 2 coats of gloss will provide excellent results. A couple of maintenance coats of gloss every 3 years will keep everything looking good. If you find chips or areas where water has gotten underneath you can easily sand and touch up these areas with Cetol. Much harder to do with varnish. I have no experience with Alwood but it sounds promising. I have lots with Cetol and Varnish