advise on varnish maintenance appreciated...

[carlosalbaprado]

Hi Guys,

A couple of years ago I decided to use Deks Olje 1 and 2 to varnish my 1967 Pearson Alberg. Maintenance so far has been ok but I just found out that this product has been discontinued by the manufacturer and cannot be found in the US anymore. Would appreciate very much any advise on which alternative product would be best to use. The manufacturer's website has absolutely no leads on this nor have I been able to get good advise in local shops in Ft. Lauderdale. Txs a lot.

[JohnRPollard]

Carlos,

I'm not familiar with that brand of varnish. But everybody seems to have their favorite. Mine is Schooner by Interlux. I use it on the wood dinghy we built, and it has held up very well. Maintenance is pretty easy. Just lightly sand and recoat each spring.

I use Cetol Light on the teak on our cruising boat. This is supposed to be a lower maintenance alternative to varnish -- sometimes I wonder about that claim, though. Some day I may just switch over to vanish.

[camaraderie]

It is NOT varnish...part 1 is a penetrating oil and part 2 is a sealer with a bit of gloss to it.
It can be removed with the 2 part teak cleaners that are available.
Then I would suggest the Cetol Natural with 2 coats, followed by Cetol Gloss with a couple of coats. It is equally easy to maintain with a scrubber and touch ups of the gloss and better looking in terms of finish in my opinion.
There are several threads here on the Cetol. Here's a pix on how my toe rail turned out.
http://www.sailnet.com/forums/buying...tml#post259546