HAS TEAK PEAKED?

Straight-grained, devoid of knots, beautiful to look at and blessed with natural oils that leave it highly resistant to warping or rotting in even the harshest saltwater environments, teak’s position as the world’s premiere decking material is well-deserved – and a big reason why it’s still held in such high esteem among boat buyers.

But teak’s positive qualities also come with a range of caveats. Its high (and growing) cost, along with mounting concerns about the sustainability of the old-growth teak harvest have left boatbuilders and boaties looking increasingly to alternative decking materials. Some of these modern alternatives not only compete favourably against teak, but offer real advantages over the old gold standard.

The very best teak comes from the old-growth forests of Myanmar. There, an ideal balance of soil chemistry and drainage, along with a perfect climate with just the right mix of temperatures, rainfall and humidity, create a unique environment where teak trees thrive. Teak from this region has been harvested for centuries.

The trees which yield the best teak are old – at least 50 but preferably closer to 100 years of age. It was all fine and well when the world built a few thousand new boats each year. But over the last century as global boat production surged into the tens of thousands of decks every year, demand for teak grew to the point where harvesters began felling trees faster than they could grow back.

The harvest of teak accelerated further about 15 years ago when Myanmar’s military-led government allowed vast swathes of old-growth forest to be levelled – a move accompanied by widespread allegations that the administration was in fact being