Teak Revival, Deep Cleaning, and Found Treasure

The last post was all about tough, even nasty, projects... So now I want to share some more fun stuff! There was a good amount of deep cleaning and wood restoration, the kinds of jobs that are immediately satisfying and often had us oooooing and ahhhhing at the results. But, before we get to that... Let's talk about the one extra compartment we found, several visits after we thought we had gone through everything in the boat. See, the salon has this convertible sofa, with drawers underneath. We had cleaned out all the drawers, but hadn't moved all the sofa cushions out of the way. They were kind of nasty and sticky underneath, maybe even glued to the boards below, so we had left that for whenever we wanted to tackle some leather restoration. 

After deciding now was the time and removing the cushions, Becca was playing with the sofa to understand the mechanics of how it turns into a bed when she found this space. I was able to capture her "what is in here?" face... If you look close, you can see there is something shiny wrapped in those towels. Turns out, it was a whole spare set of propellers! They look new and are labeled 19x21 (diameter and pitch), which matches the ones on the boat now. We believe the boat is currently over-propped though, so this may mean we have two full sets of propellers that are too big for it... but time will tell! Even if we end up selling these, it was most definitely a pleasant surprise... They even shine like lost treasure! OK, so back to the deep cleaning...

Let's be clear, this boat is dirty. Very dirty, and likely getting dirtier as we do more projects. But there's dirty, and then there's scuzz. And while we aren't trying to make the boat clean any time soon, removing what seems to be decades of scuzz in some areas is a project in and of itself. In some cases, it's really a matter of seeing if things are recoverable, or if they need to be added to the long needs-replacement list. Becca and Lori decided to tackle the not-very-attractive L-shape seating at the flybridge. The vinyl cushions were pretty dirty and mildewed, but the storage compartment underneath was even worse (left image above). Of note was that delightful scent of moist little compartments that haven't seen enough sunlight. To clean it right, they removed the whole thing, to discover even more grime underneath it (right image above). 

Becca, above, sits on the now imaginary bench. Below, they work hard at scrubbing the base, and inspect the condition of the vinyl. Lori clearly has some thoughts. 

Vinyl is not hard to bring back though, if you have the right products, and you can see a transformation in real time here:

With the whole seat assembly out, Becca was able to brighten and oil the teak supports, remove the grime, and get the area ready to receive the refurbished seat. The vinyl came out pretty clean, not quite like new, but nice enough that we'll be happy to get a few years of service out of it... And with the amount of projects we have, this is good news!

Check out the clean storage unit, and the re-brightened and oiled teak trim! It's almost impossible to capture in photos how dramatic the transformation was!

As I wrote on the previous entry, Becca pre-planned all our meals, so that we could maximize project time. We did quick lunches on the boat, which is kind of a funny experience when you're inside a warehouse, in a boat with no windows. But still, we gathered around the table for mostly pre-made, assembly-only meals. 

One of our favorite things about this boat is the extensive teak in the salon. It is very well put together, with tight corners and beautiful, sometimes surprising details. So, while it's not a priority item, one of the things that we've looked forward the most is to restoring the teak to a more beautiful state. High traffic areas are highly worn and stained, and in the case of the hand rails they were gray. Becca and Lori started brightening and oiling some of the most offensive areas, with very promising results. 

Even the drawer handles, which looked dark and seemingly needing replacement, came alive at Lori's hands, with the help of some Barkeeper's Friend. Look at that difference!

The handrails and trim around the entrance were in the worst condition, but they looked a lot better after some elbow grease. Below, Becca is starting to brighten the trim by the cabin entrance steps and (soon-to-be-gone) bar sink. The other image shows that piece already brighten and oiled, while the opposite side of the steps has been brightened. 

A piece that we thought would likely need immediate replacement was the cabin door and its frame. The bottom of the door seemed like it was starting to rot, with the corners a bit eroded. The door also didn't close properly when we had seen the boat in the water (but now, dry, it does!). The frame was even worse, it had been painted over and seemed to be ready to be demolished. But, teak is always surprising, and after some work, we are convinced we will be able to save both. 

Below, peeling paint off of the door frame, then sanding it... And just like that, it started showing its potential. We will finish the sanding, and brighten and oil it, and we are confident it will look great! Since we are re-doing our flybridge canvas to fully enclose the door, the frame will not be exposed to the weather anymore, which will greatly help with maintenance. 

We did enough cleaning and refurbishing to give us a glimpse of what this boat can look like when we're done, which got us even more excited about making progress. At the end of the weekend described in these last two posts, we had done the majority of the projects on our list, plus some additional ones. We felt quite accomplished and thankful for Lori and Jim's enthusiastic help. 

Speaking of Lori and Jim, I had promised to share their impressions of the boat in this entry. We asked them what they thought, and how it compared to what they expected, based on all the photos they had seen before. Lori thought the boat was larger and more spacious that she expected, especially in terms of cabin space. She also thought it was "very cute" and exciting. Jim said that he was glad to see the boat was not a piece of trash (OK, can't recall the exact words, but something like that.) I think we oversold how much of a project it was, and he appreciated how the bones of the boat still seemed solid. They both seemed surprised at how much demo we've done right off the bat, having turned the whole thing into a construction zone. But we think they would understand if they had seen the condition of the wallpaper and other things we removed, and smelled their associated smells. A key transformation that's happened is that the strong mildewy odor is slowly but surely disappearing! All in all, Lori was mainly glad to have dived in with us while the boat is still very much in it's "before" state - she didn't want to miss it.

Below, we say goodbye to a really great Airbnb and to the boat itself, as we wrapped up a very productive 4th weekend of working on the boat!