My companion way was showing its age. I was going to simply sand it, and re-finish it… but somehow two of the steps were actually broken, and I have a problem with scope creep as usual.

Even with just a light sand, the teak veneer blew through… and was going to look super patchy. So I ordered some new veneer, put in some temporary steps, and started the process.

The original steps had little grooves cut in for traction. These were good, but got clogged up, and broke apart some. I make some new inserts that took too much process, like usual. I routed an edge off, then stained, then routed again. The steps were routed to accept the inserts, which were both glued and screwed in. Metal plates were added to the bottoms of the steps to re-enforce them, then 6 coats of polyurethane.

Add some lights, and tada.

While the steps were done with polyurethane, the walls with the new veneer were done with a shellac that I mix myself. My theory is that anything I can remove, I can poly pretty easily, while the parts of the boat that I can’t remove I use a shellac. Shellac is much faster, less odorous, and pretty easy to repair for when I inevitably nick them.

The downside to all of this, the rest of the boat now needs the same love.