Each project, no matter how small, is a bit of a journey. Since it was winter when I bought the boat, I could not embark on refinishing the boat until warmer days arrived. However, I could get started with refinishing some of the Teak wood trim. Initially I bought some varnish stripper, but after some feedback from the community, a concern was raised about what could happen if the stripper were to damage the fiberglass, or gelcoat. So, I decided to give it a try with a sander and bought a cordless random orbit sander from Ryobi (wonderfully useful!). Using a 150 grit sanding disc, I was able to strip the old, dry varnish off. It was not fast, but it also was not hard work.

There are a lot of resources that compare varnish and cetol. I won’t go into all the gory details. The bottom line is that this boat will be kept on a trailer, and under the cover of a car port most of the time. It does have weather exposure but not as much as many other boats. Traditional marine varnish requires more prep, more coats, more often. Cetol is a common alternative that requires less prep, less coats, less often. That’s good enough for me. To get started, I started with a small test piece of brightwork to make sure I understood how to strip (sand), clean, and apply the Cetol. Here is what it looked like through each step.

Up Next — How to prep the surface for Marine Teak Refinishing