Topside Wood Replacement

(photos below the narrative)

 I started this project shortly after I bought the boat in late 2005, but it wasn't complete until the completion of the topside painting. 

I initially planned to clean up and and restore the teak, but after starting that little project I decided restoring teak sucked, and I like maintenance free things. (after all there is enough crap to maintain on a boat)  I decided a one time project to remove all the wood from the topside spaces would save a lot of time and effort every season maintaining teak, a good portion of which was nothing but decorative to begin with. 

Don't get me wrong I love the look of well maintained teak, it's beautiful.  Especially when it's someone else maintaining it.

I started looking around for replacement materials.  Stainless steel hand rails are very costly, still needed to be shined on occasion, and would be nearly impossible to find to fit the existing holes in the deck.  Plexiglas for the hatches was possible, but wouldn't look very good in my opinion and I still need a material to replace the hatch slides and a replacement for the aft storage door support.

It took some weeks of looking around, researching the internet, and wandering around Lowes home improvement, when it finally hit me.  On the shelf right in front of me was a PVC exterior wood replacement.  It could be worked with regular wood working tools, would never rot, could be primed and painted exactly like the hull, and best of all..... that's right... IT'S CHEAP!!!!

I only replaced the functional wood with the PVC; if it was decorative it was removed all together.  I even used it in the bilge to mount my water heater in place of the original plywood mounting that had rotted out.

 

You can see the original teak around the hatch, the hatch sliders, and hand rails.	Here you can see the teak trim above the ports and the hand rail as they were before I started the project.	Another view of the cockpit wood work with 'Kitty' the dog in the picture.
What's left of the bedding material after removal of the wood.	Filling the holes, the first of the PVC replacement material installed.	The PVC hatch and cabin top handle replaced, but unpainted.
Cabin top slides and hatch replaced and painted.	Completed	The cabin top hatch slides being manufactured, using the originals as a pattern.
Wood removed from the aft hatch.	PVC replacement installed and painted	Cock pit aft hatch support installed and painted.
Wood trim above the ports removed and in the process of removing the bedding material.	Filling the screw holes, this wood will not be replaced.	Filled holes.
Mr. Fix-it tracing out the pattern for the new 11 loop hand rails on the PVC material.	Two boards joined and glued.	The first cut out.
Fresh off the router, they're starting to look more like hand rails.	Cabin, handrails, and hatch cabin top slides painted.	Handrail and cabin without trim above ports painted.
Hand rails painted and installed. The wood trim above the ports is gone.	A side by side view.
		Before
After

What to do with all that left over teak....

Click for full size image

Mr. Fix-it was kind enough to make some pen and pencil sets for me.  Now there's some trouble free teak, that looks good, and is functional. 

Mr. Fix-it is an old Navy buddy who helps me with most of my wood working projects.  (mostly just the ones I want to look good)  He put together my retirement shadow box and sword case for my grandfather's sword.

Mr. Fix-it's previous work:

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