The top photo shows the rack at the beginning of the experiment. The bottom photo shows the results after six months (but before the removal of avian calling-cards).

Over the years, teak treatments and marine varnishes have been exhaustively tested by Powerboat Reports. We can't recall when a test frame of some kind wasn't weathering away in the parking lot or in some editor's backyard.

Among the tests underway now is one that brings together all the prior tests of oils, varnishes, pigmented stains and sealers. It pits the best of the 10 individual teak "treatments" in a single test intended to give boatowners a choice of how much effort they want to expend to keep their teak looking good. The products, as in the top-to-bottom order on the chart on the following pages, are three varnishes, Epifanes…