Rehabilitating the ladder

We love projects that we can do after work at home and this little ladder is one of them

Our Silveton came with one of these ladders that make it convenient to get from the deck to the cockpit - a very long step in our boat. The original ladder came with teak steps and like a lot of other things, needed refinishing.  We did that a couple of winters ago and it has held up nicely and looked great.

Two years ago, Frances found the exact same ladder, made by Garelick, and bought it.  The new version didn't come in teak but in "varnished oak" or some kind of white yucko plastic. Frances opted for the oak.

We used this ladder and its teak brother for two seasons and the newer oak version really began to look like crap.  The varnish, if that's what it was, peeled off and we hated it every time we looked at it. The original teak ladder continued to look great even with a lot of use.

After we were out of the water for winter storage, we brought the newer oak ladder home. It took about a minute to drill the aluminum rivets out of the frame. In another half hour, our belt sander had removed what little finish was left.

While this looks like a piece of oak with grooves milled into it, it isn't. It's actually four pieces of oak glued together to form the step.  The top step (the one that takes the most weight) broke apart in our hands as soon as we removed it. The bottom step stayed intact.

After sanding off the varnish and discoloration, we glued the pieces back together and set the step in our large vise overnight. The picture shows that step back together, although we describe below how we decided to reinforce it.

To refinish the steps, we like Sikkens Cetol Marine light. It has proved to be a great finish on high traffic areas such as our bridge ladder and swim platform. We've had good results with 6-8 coats (24 hours between coats).

Here are the steps after three coats of Sikkens.

We always mask the edges because Sikkens is thin and will run down around and stain the other side. We use cheap, 1-inch, brushes (after pulling out the loose hairs) that we can throw away after the application of each coat.

We really didn't believe that these steps would stay together with just the factory glue.  We added some strength by screwing aluminum strips to the underside of each step. Easy to do and you won't be able to see the reinforcement when the steps are in use on our boat. One screw goes through the center of each section of the step.

If you have an older Silverton and would like to buy another step for your boat, we found Garelick 25022 (oak step) for $109 at Wholesale Marine. The step comes with the clips you need to attach them to the coaming.Just remember that you'll have to refinish this thing after a year or two.