New non skid coating on decks

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I did the job in two passes. That turned out to be a good idea.

The first pass was the cabin top. It took an entire day to mask it.

I used the same process of cleaning and dewaxing the deck, then priming with the Ultra Tuff two part water based epoxy primer.

The painting process is well documented on the cockpit sole page.

July 2008 --

The non skid in the cockpit worked out,
so I decided to do the rest of the boat with it.

I finished the cockpit in November, and it took about three hours for the paint to dry between coats.

In June, it was much hotter and drier, and it was a real challenge to keep the paint from thickening up in the tray. The trick was to keep thinning it out with water, and not to over work it once it started to dry on the deck.

Still, this turned out to be a very aggressive surface.

That doesn't bother me, though. Either the rubberized coating makes it easy on the feet, or my feet are tough from walking around barefoot all the time.

It was nearly a month before I finished the main decks. I was waiting for cooler weather, and was busy with other projects.

It was interesting to note that the cabin top got darker over that month. While the paint fully cures in about a week, it seems to keep curing long past that point.

The decks are clearly darker than the cockpit, and I think the color formula isn't consistent between batches.

 

I really worked on keeping the paint thinner when doing the main decks, so that I had more time to even out the rubber aggregate. Even so, the main decks are also very aggressive.

I definitely believe that the four gallons I bought for the decks have a different formulation than the cockpit paint that I bought in 2007.

It doesn't bother me, though.

I have noticed that the cockpit non skid has really mellowed out over time. I believe that the paint continues to harden up over time, which compresses the rubber aggregate. Also, the aggressive particles on the top layer get knocked off through wear and tear.

Where the tape was tracing the edge of the old non skid, and thus was on smooth gelcoat, I had no problem.

But I'd never intended to paint the decks, and now it looks like I'll have to.

Arrh. If I was going to paint the boat, I would have done it before the non-skid went down, not afterwards. So this sucks.

I also wouldn't have made those big window frames for the opening ports, but would have glassed the house over and faired it.

So, this situation sucks.

In the meantime, though, I find the aggressive nature of the paint to be just fine.
I'm not afraid to walk up the foredeck when the boat is bouncing around, and that's important.

So, here is my big heartache.

I spent 12 hours masking the deck off, and thought I'd pressed the tape down well.

However, where the tape was on old non skid, there wasn't a good seal. The thin, watery primer seeped underneath.

The non skid coating didn't seep, so I have a ragged edge of exposed primer.

So, am I happy?

Not really.

This paint is an much darker shade than the cockpit, is far more aggressive than the cockpit, and is not the look I was expecting.

However, it's definitely non skid, and I feel a lot safer.