I know a team that is interested in purchasing a used teak boat. I am not sure how much it will cost them, but obviously much less than a nice, new BUK. I like teak boats from a nostalgic point, but am not sure if it's a good plan in terms of maintenance costs, quality and general practicality. I was just wondering what others think? Is teak good or bad? Are there any specific problems with these boats to be aware of? How are they to steer? What's your experience with them?

Don't do it.
Teak boats are not meant to be used all the time. They are supposed to be used during dragonboat festival (the one and only real dragonboat festival in June) and then burried in the sand to wait for the next year (wet sand protects the wood from drying out, splitting and creating leaks).
They are heavy, expensive, and repairs require skilled hands. Which are in short supply.
They are also beautiful, but it's one of those things, like dugout canoes, that's neat, but not really viable.
Of course, I could be wrong.

I actually just cut a teak boat to pieces about 3 months ago. It had been left outside unprotected, rightside up, for 2 winters (and summers), with the water pooling and freezing and melting and freezing. It had a few leaks, and had been repaired in the past, and it was everyone's opinion that it was garbage.

I had to drill holes in the bottom of the hull to allow the standing water to leak out. Once drained 3 of us took a reciprocating saw to it. Once we had cut it into two parts, we are all amazed to see that the wood had little to no water damage, so much so that I'm now attempting to make a bookshelf out of the bow (first 3-4 rows).

From a paddling point of view, I always enjoyed racing in the teak boats. The sheer mass of the damn thing made for some great glide, especially in the 640m races that the Toronto Island used to have.

2 things:
Anyone who has paddled has heard the story about burying the boat in the sand, but maybe it was just that they did not have fancy heated boathouses, and by putting the boat in the ground no frost was able to get to the boat and create issues.
The other is (and my caveat here is I'm no arborist or carpenter) that when cutting there seemed to be 2 types of wood, in terms of density and how easily the saw cut, and I swear one was cedar by the smell. Cedar is also a great wood for resisting rot and water damage.

Why not tell them to get a slightly newer fibreglass boat?

PaddleSport Racing has a couple used Pel/Plastex boats available for sale at a good price.

Send me an email for more details.

Jeff Holubeshen

The burrying the boat in wet sand was done to keep the wood moist to stop it from shrinking and creating gaps, and leaks. A heated boathouse would actually be the worst thing for an old teak boat as it would dry it out. (guess what they do in New York?) But I doubt that storing them outside, above ground and exposed to the elements did your old teak boat much good either. In the countries where the sand storage was used, I doubt frost would be a problem.

Dragon Boat East has 8 brand new BuK boats and 3 old teak boats.

Leaving the teak boats in the water is absolutely no problem. The wood will get grey and look rotted, but as the previous poster discovered, the wood is so dense that it will take 30 or 40 years to rot so that if affects the structure. It will affect the appearance. If you either paint or varathane onced a year - use marine varnish, I'm a maritimer, structurally the boat will outlast your lifetime.

Appearance issue aside, the teak boats are more stable, more robust in terms of beginning crews beating them up, and as we found last September, great to train in even for elite crews. Our Beast crew trained in our teak boats all September when our BuK's were on the road - for flatwater people it was like resistor training - so when we went back to the BuK's we could really work with the enhanced glide of the BuK's.

And - the cost of a used teak boat is hugely significant.
I would not worry about maintenance in a teak boat - they are made to stay in water.

Thanks for the nice post, Albert!

If there are more of the teak boats for sale, I am interested in turning them into bookshelves and be the envy of the dragonboat community!!

They actually use teak and camphor wood to build the hong kong teak boats.
So I think your smelling camphor Joel.