I was just drooling over Megan's photos and the brightwork. Now that it is drying out down here in the Tropics, it is time to dress up the wood on Nice Pear, which has suffered from years of neglect from the prior owners, and has turned into the typical J-boat racing gray weathered finish. Any tips on how to get a sheen back to the wood? Don't want to varnish every month, but I would like to have the boat look like the yacht that she is.

Thanks!
Art

What I would do, sand to the desired smoothness, and then apply a two part teak cleaner like Snappy Nu Teak. It cleans out the pores and bleaches the wood to a natural sanded color. If you sand more after that you may sand back down to dirty wood and have to repeat the cleaning. The results will amaze you. Then finish with Sikkens Natural Teak, 1st coat thinned 10-15% for penetration then a 2nd for color depth. I then finish with 3-4 coats of Goldspar Clear Gloss (It has the best UV inhibitors)
lightly sanding between coats. This was my process on my last Catalina 30 and lasted for 4 years with out retouching. Then I sold the boat to buy my J30. Worked for Me!

How do you guys embed your images in the text?

Look here on how to post images

I'll edit your post above.

Art ... what works up north ... may not be so easy down here ... i would rethink the effort to keep the brightwork bright. Boat next to me here in naples requires pretty constant work to keep looking good. Got to remember it's pretty cloudy six months a year up there ... and never gets stronger sun than our winter season.

i do a light power wash once a season and it pretty much cleans everything up, but at a cost of grainy surface.

We have been using onward teak system which is a 3 part system and the results are excellent after cleaning and brightning we have had coments that the teak on the boat we have just cleaned is better than the brand new boat next to it.there is also a teak sealer that you can put on after that waterproofs the teak and when you need to clean it again the cleaner removes the sealer.YOU MUST KEEP EVERYTHING WET UNTILL TH BRIGHTNER HAS BEEN RINSED OFF