.But one of the problems with having new stuff is that can make the old stuff in the same setting look bad.This is a case in point, with the beautifully stained timber deck box showing just how badly sun bleached and marked the existing teak furniture was.
It just so happens that the manufacturer of Noflex Digestor also manufactures a boat wash called "Sea Solve" that neutralises the salt from spray and cleans the boat without damaging the wax coating, as other salt removal washes can. I was sent some with my last shipment of Noflex and, with advice from a boat detailer from the West Coast of the USA who has been using it for some time, I have been trialling it over the last few weeks, particularly on my own equipment and I am very impressed with the results. It comes as a 1 litre container with garden hose attachment for automatic mixing at 200:1 for boat washing, but I also mix some in a spray bottle at 30:1 for other purposes.
Washing the boat with it prior to waxing removes oxidisation and makes it significantly easier to apply and polish. All you need to do is wet the surface, hose it on, give it a light brush, and hose it off. I was so impressed with the results prior to polishing the boat that I washed my old unloved Mitsubishi Van with it and, while it could still USE a polish, it no longer NEEDS one!
Diluted 30:1 I have used it for cleaning all sorts of surfaces - it is probably the best fibreglass shower cleaner I have ever used - and it will get tea/coffee stains out of porcelain cups. But the thing that caught my eye from the boat detailer was his advice that it worked well to clean teak.
So, I sprayed the deck furniture with the 30:1 mixture and gave it a light rub with a Scotch Brite pad, before washing it off. I hadn't taken a pic of the furniture "before" (other than the one above), but here is one of the same furniture from our deck at our apartment, and the stuff on the boat was in similar condition. It took about an hour to do the 4 chairs, and the timber came up like new when it dried. I then applied a coating of linseed oil based furniture polish (much, much cheaper than teak oil!!) and they now match the deck box perfectly
The only problem is that, since the Admiral has seen it, I now have to do the same with the furniture at the apartment. It is a very big table.....and it has a 2ft extension in the middle.....and there are 6 chairs....and 2 of them have arms .....(sigh)
BTW we did go away for Labour weekend, although we waited until Sunday so we could watch the All Blacks thrash Australia and win the Rugby World Cup for the third (record), and the second consecutive (record), time!
Here's a couple of pix of what Oneroa looked like on Labour Day
Till next time
