Wood Hatch Joint Waterproofing

[Steve'O]

OK my boat has a beatiful original teak sliding hatch:



The problem is that there's a few leaks coming through the hatch, between the joints of the 4 or 5-inch wide teak strips.

My plan to fix this, is to route out a 3/16 groove at each joint and to fill with black polisulphide caulk to mimic what a teak deck looks like.

I plan to west system and re-varnish the hatch when I'm done

Question: Does anyone think this is a bad idea?

Should I apply the west system & varnish and then the caulk or do I caulk first?

[Capn_Tom]

The polysulphide should work just fine. If the teak is stable you can use thickened epoxy colored with graphite filler instead. The one thing to be careful of with polysulphide is the nature of the wood finish you use. Petroleum distillates will soften the polysulphide. Varnish shouldn't be an issue since it dries quickly but teak oils can be a problem over time. Unless the teak is in bad shape I don't see any reason to use epoxy before the varnish.

[Rachel]

Steve,

You might find this thread of interest:

http://plasticclassicforum.com/viewtopi ... sole+black

By the way, in case you're thinking "Oh gosh, I should have searched and found that," know that unless you remembered reading that thread in the first place (it's amazing the threads you'll vaguely remember -- and can dredge up -- after you've been here for awhile) you wouldn't necessarily have found it.

Rachel

[Quetzalsailor]

Our NE 38 has bright Teak hatches and hatch frames. All joints are 1/8" wide and were made as you describe, with sealant stripes between the planks, also at the mitered corners and the perimeter trim. Clearly, the tongue & groove profiles of the joints were all worked out very carefully aforehand; 38 year old boat with original sealant and it's still tight. The negatives are in the way that varnish does not flex as well as the sealant, so things do not stay Bristol looking forever.

You might save some bother if you were to saw out the cracked joint (to clean it) and putty-knife filled epoxy into it. Use a thin saw, like the ones sold for cutting dovetails.

Strip, rout, fill the joints, wait for the cure, sand, varnish. Skip the West. Another scheme I've read was: strip (the thing I read was new construction), rout, fill the joints with black-colored epoxy, sand, coat in epoxy (or not), varnish.

[Steve'O]

You guys are awesome. There’s so much experience on this list! It’s comforting to start a project without having to go through trial and error.

"varnish does not flex as well as the sealant, so things do not stay Bristol looking forever”

Quetzal that’s exactly why I wanted to use epoxy under the polysulfide. I hadn’t thought of using graphite. Since the wood on the hatch seems stable I think I’ll try the graphite method on the hatch. On the lazarete locker lids the wood is not nearly as stable so I‘ll probably use the poly method there. We’ll see how the two methods hold up.