Covid delays, a bad fit, and puddle problems left this Pearl 62 needing new decks. Here is how next-gen synthetic teak saved the day
The hard-working exhibitors at the Southampton Boat Show will have heard some strange requests over the years. I hope my visit to the Hardy 45 European in 2025 at least earned a mention at their evening debrief. “Can I get on my hands and knees and inspect your synthetic decks?” In the event, they were gracious enough to let me crouch down and run my fingers along every seam and join.
The reason I needed to replace the decks on a three-year-old Pearl 62 is simple: they looked awful. Poorly fitted, lifting in places, with trapped water underneath and puddles on the flybridge that a passing duck might have found inviting. I take pleasure in making a boat right – and the decks were not that!
How did it come to this? Well when I bought the Pearl, she had already been specified.
The synthetic decks were due to be fitted in the UK on arrival. This was post-Covid, which meant shipping chaos, difficulty finding a vessel to take Katie Lou and her sister ship from China, and diversions along the way.
I paid my 99p a day and tracked her via AIS, watching her daily movements with occasional frustration as she went the wrong way. In the end, she arrived several months late.
Maritime Yacht Services did a superb job of it
The basis of the issues
I had sold my Princess 56 before she came and the resulting five-month gap was the longest I had been without a boat in 25 years. It was absolute torment.
When the Pearl finally turned up, the company originally lined up to fit the decks was busy. Pearl Yachts understandably instructed another firm instead.
In retrospect I should have waited until the original company had availability but after all the COVID related delays I was keen to get out on my new boat as soon as I reasonably could. Besides, on first inspection the decking didn’t look too bad but after a while, the problems started to become apparent.
When I pointed out my concerns, the fitters returned for another ten days to address some of the issues, at one point sanding the decks to flatten a lump underneath – and that was not, it turns out, the ideal solution. In the end I decided that replacement was the only satisfactory option.
The original decking never looked right
Back to the boat show
So, there I was at the boat show, head down, inspecting decks. I visited every deck manufacturer there. I dug out various back issues of MBY. I even watched a video review by editor Hugo from ten years ago to weigh up the options. I was offered certified real teak at over £200,000 but at that price, I would have disowned a child for dropping a crisp on the deck, so synthetic was the only realistic path.
I used AI tools to visualise what various products and plank configurations would look like on board and that actually proved a lot more useful than I had expected.
The Pearl’s flybridge is as big as most 70-footers’, and that was where the greatest challenge lay. Colour variations in the planks – designed to look more natural over a large area – played tricks on the eye. On a small cockpit they can look convincing but across a large flybridge, they can start to look striped rather than natural.
Then I met Tye from Elite Teak, who showed me his latest product: Evo synthetic teak, a material that shifts tone along the length of the plank rather than across it. That solved the flybridge problem at a stroke.
Water used to pool on the flybridge
Getting the job done
I engaged Maritime Yacht Services to manage the project, handle the removal and – critically – carry out the preparation work on the underlying mouldings.
The old decks came off easily, having not been very well glued down in the first place. But Danny and his colleagues at MYS are true artisans: they faired the deck surfaces to ensure water would drain cleanly rather than sit.
They even fabricated bespoke stainless-steel drains for the bathing platform. They say preparation is everything and nowhere is that more true than with decks. Once the bare decks had been flooded and tested for drainage, we were ready.
The old synthetic teak was removed and replaced
Tye and his team then set about the fitting with a level of attention to detail that was genuinely impressive. A neighbour in Lymington, who is a very knowledgeable boater, made an astute observation: synthetic decks are often identified by their implausibly long, uninterrupted planks.
Real teak always has cross joints. So Tye and I agreed on 2.1m lengths – a decision that paid particular dividends on the flybridge. Danny from Maritime and Ali, who looks after my boats day to day, carried out an exhaustive final inspection.
I was beginning to feel for Tye as they flagged things the human eye would ordinarily struggle to find. But the result is, frankly, remarkable. Several people have since asked where I managed to source my real teak!
The new Evo decking looks like the real deal
Modern decking options
For anyone considering deck replacement, the modern options have narrowed considerably. Old-growth Myanmar teak is now illegal to import across the UK, EU and US following post-coup trade sanctions, and plantation teak can be short-lived. Synthetic, therefore, is often the practical choice, but only when preparation is scrupulous and the deck is fitted correctly.
With the right people involved, synthetic decking is not a compromise. If you want to see for yourself, come and take a look at my boat…
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