Integral replacement of the teak deck of a sailboat
The Varador 2000 shipyard has carried out at its technical facilities in Barcelona (Arenys de Mar) a complexe refit: the integral replacement of the teak deck of a 30-meter long sailboat with another from Flexiteek 2G, the world’s number one synthetic teak.
The operation, simple on paper, is of enormous complexity, since the 8 mm difference between the thickness of the original teak (13 mm) and the thickness of the synthetic teak (5 mm) have had to be supplemented by high-density PVC core vacuum gluing (130). The core cell is closed, and does not absorb water or moisture.
Coordinated by the Technical Director of Varador 2000, Raül Donaire, the work has been carried out in its entirety by the technical team of Garriga BCN, a workshop specialized in composites and laminates based in Varador 2000.
Jordi Garriga, the head of Garriga BCN, explains that the most innovative part of the entire roof refit operation, which has lasted 4 months, has been the lifting / supplementation of said roof by means of a PVC core since this “has been carried out by compaction using a vacuum bag”.
The process has been carried out with the previous manufacture of templates and cutting of the PVC Core sheets, overcoming various differences in height and thickness in the hatch frames, and the subsequent gluing of these under vacuum.
Subsequently, the supplementation of specific reinforcement has been carried out in more than 120 deck fittings such as sheet rails, deck pedestals, fairleads, lifelines, etc. by means of a mechanized Celotex plate due to its high resistance to compression and specific moisture absorption.
The success of this operation has been teamwork and good coordination to solve all the difficulties overcome. The work prior to all this operation has also been complicated, since when the original teak was removed, a great corrosion of the deck aluminum was found that covered many different areas, which had caused the teak and putties to be unhooked. In order to properly prepare all the surfaces, the parts affected by corrosion were cleaned, primers were applied, a leveling putty and a protective primer of said putty was carried out. From this point on, we proceeded with the supplementation indicated above by means of a PVC core and its gluing with a vacuum bag.
Process sequence
