Decks: Interim Report

New Bern, NC
35 06.224 N 077 02.285 W

A reader reminded me that I've been making you wait 5 months, and still no report on the new decks.  It's true, I haven't written because the project is still not finished.  But I owe at least an interim report, so here goes.

The new non-skid stuff is beautiful, and tough.  I expect it to last a lifetime and to provide non-skid functionality, while remaining easy to clean.   See the picture below.  I took that close up picture beside the feet of my newly re-installed deck cleats so that you could see the detail.

The waffle pattern comes from net material.  Actually the kind of net used to make bait bags for commercial fishermen.   The net was laid down, then on top of that went epoxy resin.  Then rough spots were sanded.  Then two more coats of epoxy and four coats of gelcoat.  The powder blue color comes from the gelcoat.

Close up showing the pattern and the feet of my deck cleat.

The work was done by Dave at Dawson Creek Boatworks.  According to Dave, the net method is his alone.  Nobody else anywhere does that.  It is a brilliant idea because trying to mold a waffle pattern into large areas of new gelcoat is a nightmare, and getting non-skid properties by adding sand to paint has other problems.  That is what we were trying to get rid of.   Dave does beautiful work.  I recommend him.  His work doesn't come cheap however.  I paid $3549 for the non-skid job, plus another $1275 for some preparatory filling and fairing work because my deck sanding had dug too deeply in places.

Here's a view where you can see more of the deck.

But the project is not done.  What's left?   As you see in the picture below, there are areas (lots of areas) where I had sanded  beyond the boundary of the non-skid.   Dave's quote did not include repainting those areas.

Actually, before leaving the boat, I wondered about those areas and asked Dave for a quote on doing that work too.  He gave me an estimate, but the total was over $12000 and at a labor rate three times higher than the other work.   Clearly it was a case of him not wanting to do that job but being too polite to refuse to give a quote.  

When the job was done, Dave also mentioned that this was the first and only job he had ever done without repainting the deck first, and laying the nonskid on top of the new paint.  That would certainly be a lot simpler.  Somewhere up front he and I didn't communicate and I didn't know that was the normal method.  I think in most cases there was still original and trusted gel coat and paint to be left in place and painted over.  In my case, I didn't trust what was on the deck before and I wanted to sand down to bare glass to be sure.   Live and learn.

Showing where work remains.

To finish, I plan a two step process.  First, I'll paint over the unfinished raw spaces like you see, for color coverage.  It will serve as a primer.  But the color will never exactly match the remaining white smooth ares of top deck.  For that, I'll sand and repaint all the white smooth areas of the top deck.  Whew.  Lots of work still to do.   I'll do step 1 before leaving New Bern, and step 2 over the winter in Marathon.

Lessons learned:  This all started because the gel coat had worn off the non-skid areas on my deck.  It was becoming impossible to keep it clean.   What I should have done was to put new gel coat down.  However, I didn't trust my skills to do the gel coat myself, and I was too cheap to get it done professionally.  I tried to fix it with paint.  That was disastrous.  I could never prepare the surface adequately because of the waffle pattern.  I painted it 5 times in 6 years before giving up.  I suppose the real lesson was that I should have consulted professionals before choosing any remedy.

Anyhow, I think our new power blue non-skid looks great.  Do you agree?