What Do You Do With The Swim Platform?

We have been considering what to do with the swim platform since we bought the boat. It is all teak and the previous owner had treated it with a hardware brand of deck stain, the type you would use around the house. They had coated all of the teak on the boat with it and we have removed and re-done everything but the swim platform. The Cetol we have used on all of the other teak would not be a good choice for this area. It probably would hold up okay, but this area gets wet when we are underway, and with the new dinghy mounted on it, something more durable would be required.

After a lot of thought, we decided to AwlGrip the swim platform just as we did the sampson post and anchor platform. We followed pretty much the same procedure that we posted for that refurbishment. The entire platform is made up of strips of teak that are screwed and epoxied together. Over the last 30 years, some of those strips have started to separate. So the first order of business was to epoxy them back together using West System and screws to pull everything tight and hold it all together. The epoxy was poured between the strips, and clamps were used to tighten it up. Then, holes were drilled into the edges and the screws were installed. The screws were countersunk and hidden from view with bungs. The wood was then completely sealed with epoxy. Everything was thoroughly sand with 120 grit sandpaper.

The next step after sanding was to wipe everything down with a tack cloth, followed by AwlPrep. I use the two cloth method with AwlPrep - one cloth saturated to wipe down and the second dry, to remove the excess AwlPrep. Once everything was dust free, three coats of 545 white primer were applied. Each coat was sanded with 220 sandpaper between coats. Once one side was primed and sanded, the platform was flipped over and the other side done. The fasteners that hold the platform to the brackets on the stern of the boat were covered with blue tape to keep them free of primer and paint.

After the third coat of primer was dry and sanded, three coats of the topcoat were applied. We chose the Sahara Sand, which is the same color that we put on the anchor platform. Now, both ends of the boat will match. Just as with the primer, we sanded with 220 grit paper between coats, and wiped down with tack rags and AwlPrep. AwlGrip calls for sanding with 300 grit, but I have had issues with the paint not adhering to the previous coat with 300 or 400. I have never had that problem using 220 and the finish looks just as smooth. Once one side was completely done, the platform was again flipped and the other side done. 

The finished product looks great and the final step, before putting it back on the boat, is to reinstall the hardware. Both the swim ladder and the Weaver dinghy davits are fairly new, as are all of the fasteners. The stainless always gets a good polishing before we re-install it.

White I was working on the swim platform, the pump for the aft Raritan head got a complete rebuild. It is fairly new, installed by the previous owner, but it had not been working quite right. So the winter down time was a good time to get this done. The rebuild kit can be purchased from West Marine or most other marine supplies. The kits are rather expensive, and there have been times when the cost of a rebuild kit and a couple of extra parts was very close to the price of a complete new head. So take that into consideration if you have to do this. The next step is to re-install everything back on the boat.