Deck work

The first week of December was spent mostly on the deck. The sides of the cockpit were trimmed and filled to accept the coamings. We had put two coats of Interlux epoxy primer on the deck a couple of weeks earlier when we first moved into the heated space. I did some sanding and filling and put on the first coat of deck paint. It is an off-white with a touch of yellow or buff color.

I decided to make an aggressive non-skid and bought a 100 pound sack of number 30 sand for $7; I only needed a couple of pounds. I spent over a day masking off areas that would not receive non-skid. Then we put on a coat of deck paint and used a coffee can with holes punched in the bottom to spread sand on the wet paint. We put on a generous coat of sand that about covered the deck. My assumption was that the excess would easily sweep off and I would be left with a continuous, thin coating.

Well, the next day I found that most of the sand had stuck to the paint and the deck resembled a Zen sand garden. Fortunately, about half a day spent with a wire brush and vacuum cleaner reduced the sand to a density we liked and I applied another coat of paint. The next day I removed the masking tape and applied the last coat of deck paint to the whole deck. The masking tape separating the deck paint from the blue hull was removed and the results are striking. The non-skid nicely masks some of the rough places in my deck finishing work.

The non-skid is rough and aggressive so should you want to lounge on the deck in your bikini, it had better be made of leather. Hmm.. interesting....but we don't do that. My thinking is that this boat is sailed from the cockpit where there will be comfortable seats. Since there are no lifelines, when you do venture on deck you will have good footing.

I stuck some cleats and handrails to the deck with tape to see how this was looking and was happy with the results.