Teak vs. Mahogany

jprobins · Post by **jprobins** » Aug 28th, '10, 19:51

My 26 originally had teak cockpit ceilings and trim similar to the one here http://bit.ly/b7ZIVr . I will try to upload a picture of mine below. My original plan was to remove the black duraboard and replace with the original teak. A friend has suggested I use mahogany instead. What are the pros and cons between the two.

Thanks,

Jim

OK. I just realized I can't upload a photo from my computer, but the teak was all removed on mine and replaced with black duraboard/

jprobins · Post by **jprobins** » Aug 28th, '10, 19:55

Well, even my attempt to insert a URL to a photo on the internet worked poorly. I will try again. This is what it should look like. This boat is on the www.bertram26.com site.

jprobins · Post by **jprobins** » Aug 28th, '10, 20:03

Well, that didn't work either. However, there are numerous pictures of a well preserved and restored 26 with the teak intact can be found at this site:

http://bit.ly/cWmQCe

Brewster Minton · Post by **Brewster Minton** » Aug 28th, '10, 20:43

teak is the way to go if you have the $. Just my two cents.

Peter · Post by **Peter** » Aug 29th, '10, 07:35

Interesting that Bertram put so much teak into any of their boats... ever. Every Bert I have ever seen has kept the wood trim to an absolute minimum to make maintenance easy. It is part of their trade mark looks. Most extensive teak or other wood trim you see on Berts was added by owners.

Lots (maybe most) boats and especially glass boats out of the 60's to the 80's added a ton of wood as ceilings and trim. I suppose to make the boats feel "warmer" and look "yacht-i-er" kind of like like and old wooden boat. But if you go have a look at the way Bertrams were built in those days there really was almost no wood trim on them anywhere. For good reason.

I do like the look of the teak. The weight shouldn't matter much in a Bert. But the cost to fit it and the ongoing maintenance will be something to consider.

Mohogany is available in many grades from many different types of trees. The cheapest stuff isn't realy mohogany at all but is actually luan. These days it is increasingly being called Meranti. It has open grain is is fairly rot resistant but not particularly attractive. The good stuff from Africa or Honduras is expensive but looks fabulous when finished bright showing lots of color highlights in the grain. All mohogany is a little more rot prone than teak with Meranti being about the best among them in that regard, and therefore should be varnished over whereas the teak can be left unfinished to go silver.

Brightwork can look wonderful on a boat.... but it is an ongoing upkeep issue

You might consider a hybrid set up with lots of plain-white flat panels made from Komacel for the ceilings trimmed with attractive teak or mohogany at the edges. It would be less maintenance. The teak edging is available pre-milled for that. It would be classic Bertram look even if it isn't totally original to your particular boat.

Peter

randall · Post by **randall** » Aug 29th, '10, 11:58

what peter said.

jprobins · Post by **jprobins** » Aug 30th, '10, 11:00

Any idea why Bertram put so much teak on the 26?

Marlin · Post by **Marlin** » Aug 30th, '10, 20:23

teak has at times a wide and deep grain which can require 7 to 8 coats to fill, mahagony is nice to work with and can be finished in fewer steps, transoms were made out of mahagony from Noah on, quite durable, I like teak and have installed a lot on several boats, your preference, epay looks very similiar and can lay in a swamp and not rot and finishes much easier, but u can get a rupture when u pick it up

jprobins · Post by **jprobins** » Aug 31st, '10, 14:33

Thanks. I will look into epay as well.

Jim

bertram31.com

Teak vs. Mahogany

Teak vs. Mahogany

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