Painted teak?

[Capt. Rodbone]

I started inspecting some cracks in the paint on a piece of trim located just above the windows on the main deck of our 42 foot Trawler. I had planned to prep these spots as best I could and then try to prime and paint again knowing that I might not appreciate the final result, which would lead to sanding, priming, painting the entire piece. It didn’t take long however to realize I was in for a much more lengthy project than anticipated. A glance at these pictures below illustrates how poorly this had adhered to the now known to be teak piece. Some of the paint pieces that easily peeled off by hand are well over a foot long! Nothing remotely close to a proper bonding had occurred. Interestingly it appears different methods were used on the port and starboard sides. The undersides of the strips of paint coming off from the starboard side have a pronounced gray tint which makes me think some type of primer was used. Neither side however bonded at all.
My question is can you properly prepare and paint teak in a way that will have reasonable longevity while exposed to the weather? i’m one of those in the minority owners who enjoys varnishing however I have plenty of bright work on this boat already. I have quite a few more hours of prepping the surface for whatever the end result is. My wife tells me I’m crazy to varnish it yet I told her I seem to recall having read (even more than once) that it’s hard to get paint to Bond to teak. Am I correct on this, or if done properly will it adhere to teak just as well as any other wooden subsurface? I’ll be using a two part Interlux paint.

 

[Comodave]

I painted a lot of the teak on our last boat. Some of it was 4 years old when we sold the boat and looked brand new, but we are in Michigan. I used Interlux Brightside paint. I believe the primer recommended was PreKote. Sanded to bare wood wiped with acetone and immediately put on the first coat of primer. Put 2 coats of primer sanding in between. The 3 coats of Brightside sanding in between with the recommended grits. It looked beautiful and was very shiny.

 

[Choices]

To paint teak I use Awlwood primer. It penetrates the world and basically turns it into plastic.

From there I would use an Awlgrip primer and paint. If your varnishing use Awlwood yellow prime for teak then Awlwood clear top coat.

This process with Awlgrip should last 15-20 years.