Taiwan teak interiors....

I have recently looked at 6 old trawlers for sale of made in Taiwan 1978-1988. In only one of the six was any effort at all to maintain the teak interior. Most looked original and never touched with water stains, scars and scrapes, worn floors, covered with crud, etc etc. Why is this?? and most of the outside teak was just as bad.....everybody watching TV 6 hours a day??Too lazy to do a little manual work? Boats owned only by dilletantes??? Drunk and disabled? LOLLOLOL

interior finish

geoleo said:

I have recently looked at 6 old trawlers for sale of made in Taiwan 1978-1988. In only one of the six was any effort at all to maintain the teak interior. Most looked original and never touched with water stains, scars and scrapes, worn floors, covered with crud, etc etc. Why is this?? and most of the outside teak was just as bad.....everybody watching TV 6 hours a day??Too lazy to do a little manual work? Boats owned only by dilletantes??? Drunk and disabled? LOLLOLOL

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Even get some furniture polish at the at the grocery store and spend just 10 minutes once and they all would look 100% better :lol:

We have a 1987 President that has lots of teak. On the interior there are some stains from leaks. I have fixed most, if not all, of the leaks so it should not get any worse. Overall it really isn’t bad, but I would like to have it perfect. But that isn’t going to happen on a 30 year old boat, so I will either have to live with it or find a way to fix the stains. As to the exterior teak, just sand it down and refinish it. It will come out beautiful.

Cannot tell you why some boats are let go to that extent, but I am glad that
I found one in that condition. The PO was a heavy smoker so I needed to wash the interior down twice to get rid of the brown tinge on everything, my wife made new curtains and cushions.

There was also junk all over the place, I would not have been able to negotiate the final price(cheep) if the interior had been clean. A project boat was what I was looking for and this boat has projects we can do.

its OK with me...it eould have been heartbreaking if the interior teak looked good and yet it is all peeling off now and needs a new interior covering.

But I think you might not be fair in your assrssment.

The 40 something TTs that are up around $80000 to $100000 have much better interios in general. The less than $60000 crowd is often a whole nuther ballgame.

I too have been surprised at the boats I’ve looked at. I transitioned through express Cruisers up to my current 87 CT 35s. The amount of junk jammed in every nook and cranny on the boats I saw was incredible. The CT was a snowbird livaboard and took weeks to clear and clean out stuff stashed everywhere. For a boat that did the loop, Bahamas and Cuba I could not imagine how it was possible the same individual had the skills to cruise and yet be such a slob.
Granted I am not in $100k buying group and as such I had to learn to see through non essential imperfections and accept them as part of the economics.

After my wife and I made the decision to look at a Taiwanese trawlers, we passed on the first 3 and they were all as you described. The fourth one we couldn't pass up... the interior and 90% of the exterior had been cared for and completely redone within the past 7-8 years.

That said... everyone's perspective of what's tolerable IS different. Heck we know modern all white slick looking go fast yacht types that won't even look at our old trawler... we're like water trailer people.

"The less than $60000 crowd is often a whole nuther ballgame."

They will ALL need work , We had a 35ish Albin with a great interior that went for under $20K.

Of course it needed the teak deck layer scraped off to repair/ seal the deck, and inspection ports cut into the tanks to allow proper cleaning.

A bunch of work, but the gent had decades of boating so the equipment was well maintained .

His solution to spending winters in the Bahamas? 2 cases of fuel filters.

I gotta admit, Leo, you are a seriously picky shopper (**edit** picky isn’t fair... let’s say inquisitive.. sorry) . I don’t know how many threads you have started complaining about for-sale boats, but it is more than a few.

Anyway, keeping the teak up isn’t easy, and once it is stained, it’s not a simple repair. People have different thresholds (as you are finding out). Moreover, people prioritize their projects, both on importance and against actual boat use. I can deal with a few stains if the engine has regular oils changes and the wiring is neat.

Show me a 40 year old boat with perfect teak and I'll show you a boat that never left it's covered slip. Our OA had several spots where the teak was stained by window leaks, they have all been fixed but the design of the sliding window drains is poor in my opinion, they clog very easily and back up during a hard rain. We have polished and varnished but there are still some dark streaks that unless we replace it, will always be there. For us, it adds character to the boat that says "Yes, I've been from Alaska to the Bahamas and back again mostly on my own bottom".

The 30 year old teak in my boat is near perfect....Admittedly it was well cared for, no window leaks ever, and at some point a satin varnish was applied..., built in Massachusetts by a company with many years of nicely finished sailboats before they got into the power boat game.....

Heron said:

The 30 year old teak in my boat is near perfect....Admittedly it was well cared for, no window leaks ever, and at some point a satin varnish was applied...

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The key word there is "near" perfect...LOL

Delta Dog said:

The key word there is "near" perfect...LOL

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LOL...Yeah, after 30 years I'll entertain some faults here and there in a well maintained boat....Not sure I cold tolerate that in a TT that had not been cared for..I've seen good and bad ones...The right boat will speak to you..

"built in Massachusetts by a company with many years of nicely finished sailboats before they got into the power boat game....."

Private boats are legal in Mass, not in the building country where the teak covers all.

Never seeing their handiwork even only a year old,equals no learning curve.

Cape Dory built a wonderful boat. I had a Typhoon and a 28 sail boat. My uncle use to take me out to the shop when I was kid. Great memories. My current boat a Fortier 26 was built not too far from Cape Dory. The Fortier also has lots of teak with great finish work. There is a very accomplished group of boat builders / finishers in that area.

After years of ownership of my 83 model TT, and much effort and $ spent in keeping a fairly nice teak interior for guests to see, I now consider comments such as “what’s wrong with color of the wood on that wall ?” as grounds to ask them to leave . A proper guest would have enough class to not even mention it!