Swim Platform

Dan,
As Chris mentioned, a couple thin coats of CPES or the home brew sure wouldn't hurt. However, I would avoid the West full coat of resin. Your brother in law will know if he uses it for bright work that it will turn white over time without any UV protection. Even though the wood you are replacing is on the bottom of the platform, the edges are exposed and the light will still get to it. I've seen some horrible UV damage to wood transoms from the sun reflecting off the water under wet boat house doors.

Is you brother in law an ACBS member? If so, what chapter(s)? What type of wood boats does he build?

That price for a BF of Teak is unbelievable!! You must not be shopping around. Reclaimed teak is 1/3rd the cost. Reclaimed is very available since the import ban on virgin.

My bro-in-law is a wooden boat builder. He recommended coating the mahogany with epoxy (west systems). That is what I'm gonna use.

Dan:

It's great to renew a platform... I have done a rebuild and tried to rebuild one that was too far gone. The CCFan store makes theirs out of Jatoba and it was great.

Whether you rebuild, get new or just clean up an old, tired swim platform....when it's done, it just makes you smile - REAL big!

If it's towards the pink color, then most likely it's Philippine Mahogany. It's rot resistance is pretty poor so don't expect it to last very long. You would have been better off going with the higher cost of using Teak or at least a Teak alternate like Ipe. Now, you may be faced with replacing the bottom boards again. Twice the cost of the Mahogany would come close to the Teak initial cost!

BTW, all mahoganies are open grain.

Not sure, it is light pink/brown in color. Not sapwood, open grained. Not very dense.

Platform update. Replacing bottom boards with 5/4 mahogany. Teak just too expensive. The original glue/epoxy is not a ail able any more. Looked at 5200, but have settled on 105. I lightly sand the top, careful not to loose the contours made by years of use. Here are a couple of photos. Dan

The platform on my barracuda is from a SAN it looks like it had some glue (dark glue lines, I could be wrong however!

Could be. Portland Reservoir rd. on the way to Rt 2. Bought the boat from neighbor 2 doors down and well in the woods. He got a newer SN. Stop in some time. Dan

Will do. Thanks, Dan

Agreed on the screws, none of the cc platforms that I've disassembled appeared to have ever been glued together. I didn't use glue when reassembling and they are holding up just fine.

The original platform would have to be in extremely sorry shape (broken or missing boards) to make restoring it the less preferred method.

Where in ct are you, Dan?

Dan,
Welcome to CCfan. Make sure you get us some pictures of the boat. A diary entry would be great as well.

Did your 81 come with or without a platform? If the former, is it just in bad shape? If so, there are some fantastic threads on refinishing Teak.

If you do decide to make your own, I do not recommend the resorcinol. Although strong, it is brittle and doesn't allow any flex. Do try to get as much oil off the glue joint with a strong solvent but then I'd go with 3M 5200. The polyurethanes have a very tenacious bond and the 5200 has the added benefit of some flex. It will also allow movement when the wood goes through wet and dry cycles. The resorcinol will not.

BTW, have you priced Teak lately? There are alternates!!

Have you checked out the web sight's "store"?