Spar Varnish or Urethane for Deck Rails and Trim?

[SDSeville]

I am going to refinish the deck rails and trim on my 1989 Bayliner 2560. I think I have decided against teak oil because of how often you must reapply it. I am looking at either Rustoleum Marine Spar Varnish or Spar Urethane. Which would be better for my application? The boat is kept in a slip in salt water.

 

[robert graham]

If it was me I'd keep a can of teak oil and a rag handy and just re-apply every now and then.....the varnish and urethane will degrade in the UV/sunlight and may require sanding and re-application, which will be more work later....

 

[Sprig]

There is not a great choice here. I had a boat with a teak swim platform and to keep it nice I had to reapply teak oil several times a year. Easy to do but a pain and teak oil isn’t cheap. I also had a beautiful mahogany runabout which I used spar varnish. It looked beautiful but every year I had to thoroughly sand it and reapply the varnish. A more involved and time consuming process. Once you go to varnish it would be tough to go back to teak oil If you wanted to. You would have to stripe the varnish completely off. I personally kind of lean toward teak oil because of ease of application. No easy solution here.

 

[JimS123]

If the rails are mahogany, marine spar varnish is the only acceptable product. It was designed for that purpose. Urethane is for the trim inside your house. (unless you want it to look really good, then use spar in the house too)

If your wood is teak, Amazon Teak Oil is your ONLY option. No matter what they say about priming teak, yada, yada, varnishing teak is an annual event, along with scraping, bleaching, etc.

 

[SDSeville]

The wood is not teak and currently has a badly weathered varnish on it.

 

[jhande]

I've been doing woodworking most of my life.

My choice would be the teak oil especially if you are putting it on teak wood.

Spar varnish or spar polyurethane (basically exterior for UV protection)?
All varnishes will slightly yellow the color of the wood.
Polyurethane tends to stay clear without the yellowing effect.
Neither will be long lasting as they don't mix well together (teak & finish).
It would be frustrating to do all the sanding of the wood and between layers for it to start peeling in a couple years. That would take LOT'S of sanding and slightly deeper into the wood to go back to oil.

 

[jhande]

The wood is not teak and currently has a badly weathered varnish on it.

What kind of wood is it?

 

[jhande]

You could even wipe on mineral oil or baby oil.

If you prefer an apply once hard finish use the poly.

"Spar varnish and spar urethane are two very different compounds. The main difference between the two is spar varnish will eventually chip or chalk off over time, while spar urethane will maintain a hard, shiny surface."

 

[JimS123]

The wood is not teak and currently has a badly weathered varnish on it.

Knowing Bayliner of that era its probably not high quality mahogany either.

My last boat was adorned in teak all over. Oiled a few times a year it still looked like new after 35 years. OTOH, my buddy decided to varnish his and the job looked like crap. Scratches and varnish drips all over.

If you have visible fasteners, unscrew the wood and fix it in the basement. If there are wooden plugs visible, pry them out, sand and leave the SS screws out after you're done. (Replace them with 316 SS) The sanding staining and varnishing will do a job on the surrounding fiberglass, so use rolls and rolls of masking tape.

 

[SDSeville]

I think I may just remove the wood from the deck rails. Not sure I am up to all the maintenance it will require. Bayliner did this a few years later. Here are the pics of my year and a 1990.

1986


1990


Mine looks the same under the wood, minus the walkthroughs. I would have to install Starboard or something similar where the gray piece is to hold my rod holders.

 

[Sprig]

The wood looks nice on your boat. That is a very minimal amount of wood trim. Keeping that well maintained and nice looking wouldn’t require much time or effort at all. A couple hours once a year. I’d just sand and varnish it.

 

[SDSeville]

The wood looks nice on your boat. That is a very minimal amount of wood trim. Keeping that well maintained and nice looking wouldn’t require much time or effort at all. A couple hours once a year. I’d just sand and varnish it.

Thanks. I am good with a few hours a year, but from what I have heard it would be that much every few months. The door and surrounding trim would be Varnish also.