Renovating a teak and holly sole

February 20, 2025 by Sailing Fair Isle | Language: EN Play Time: 00:14:40 | SAILING YOUTUBERS

Last week we showed renovating the teak and holly sole of Fair Isle and there's been loads of questions about the process so we are releasing the complete video of the renovation that we made for Patrons as a technical video.

This job is one of the most satisfying things you can do on an old boat. Teak and holly soles start to look shabby quite quickly when you live aboard, but most older boats have solid floors not the thin laminates you get these days, so a bit of work will have them looking as good as new.

Now when I say 'a bit of work' you might want to take that with a pinch of salt! It's a messy and time consuming job there's no question, but the rewards are definitely worth it.

I made things hard for myself here in that I was doing the job at anchor while living aboard. Obviously this would be an easier job to do staying off the boat. The fact we are at anchor in the Cayman Islands was a problem too as they operate on 110v here and out boat is 220v. This means I couldn't buy or rent equipment like a strong heat gun or a powerful vacuum cleaner to help with the job.

The thing that did help a lot with this job though was the varnish which was a joy to put on. I've had many occasions before with varnish that takes an age to dry and be able to recoat or do the opposite and harded too quickly so you are left with brush or roller marks no matter what you do.
I was using 'Gleam' varnish from Total Boat which is a tung oil varnish. In the conditions we had, about 85 degrees with fairly high humidity it just went on perfectly straight from the tin, no thinning. In cooler conditions thinning might be required, but I've never had a varnish that has gone on so easily and set so well with a perfect finish. So I have no hesitation in recommending it. In fact I've just found out it's compatible with Epifanes which I've been using on a lot of my outside teak, so I'm going to use Gleam instead when I recoat.
I have a link which will give you a small discount so if you need some good varnish then go to the Total Boat site here:
https://www.totalboat.com/?sca_ref=8021159.3ZVw2zUGnE

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