Wood finish update S


SERIES 3 Richard Hare reports back after another year under the sun


Above: Coelan (see p80) on teak – MY Gralian off Menton, on the French Riviera


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ummer 2011 was a typical British summer nowadays – after a sunny and particularly dry spring it proved underwhelming albeit with little rain, and was followed by an Indian summer for a welcome blast of autumnal UV. All of the nine proprietary wood finish products that went up on the test rig in Spring 2009 were accredited a CB Pass last year – see CB273. (We also tested a ‘wild card’ – a home-brew composite made up of epoxy base coats and 2-pack varnish top coats; it didn’t fare very well, and has now been withdrawn as it did not, we felt, fairly reflect the virtues of either of the component products – don’t use epoxy as varnish!) A wood finish gains a 1-Star Pass if it withstands 18 months of exposure without the integrity of the finish rupturing or eroding. This means it comfortably outlasts


CLASSIC BOAT APRIL 2012


the usual 12-month maintenance cycle. The objective of this subsequent year of exposure has been to see which of them would go on to achieve a 2-Star Pass. The rig faces SW onto a Suffolk estuary. Condition is evaluated by simple ‘naked eye’ assessment. Iroko is always used as, like teak, its oiliness is known to make it tricky. The cruel corners of each test piece challenge the products and thus provide a means of accelerated ageing, as well as indicating how a product might cope with the seasonal movement that occurs at, say, mitre joints. It follows therefore that a product that ‘fails’ at, say, 3 months would not be expected to do so on a properly rounded 1/4in (6mm) radius corner, or larger. Indeed, we frequently keep products up on the rig after the their corners ‘fail’ because they often have a lot more useful information to yield.


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