Applying The Non-skid

     On Saturday, May 21st, I decided to move forward with application of the non-skid.  With the smooth portions of the deck having received their third coat of finish paint, it was time to provide some contrast to the deck itself by painting on the non-skid.  The patterns were essentially already laid out.  One of the early projects on Froonie was to sand the decks down to primer coat / gel-coat - ridding her from the clutches of some hideous shade of gray.  The deck had a factory molded non-skid pattern applied, and it was raised slightly off the plane of the deck's smooth areas - maybe just over 1/8".  So while I was removing years of paint, I went ahead and sanded the pattern off of the deck as well, but was careful to maintain the slight elevation difference between smooth and non-skid portions of the deck.  My original idea, and what I maintained as the plan, was to paint on an Interlux product by the name of Interdeck.  This is essentially a one-part polyurethane with a fine silica additive that provides traction, but will not abrade and harm bare feet.  I began by removing the 3M 233+ tape used to protect the border between the non-skid and the smooth portions of the deck, and solvent washing what was to be the new paint line.   (Picture: showing recently removed tape on port side and soon to be removed tape on the starboard side.  You can see the shadow cast by the raised portion, the non-skid portion.  The round opening in the deck (upper-left) is the deck-pipe fitting's rough opening.)

     I continued working around Froonie's decks: removing the old tape, solvent washing, and then applying the new tape line in order to apply the non-skid paint and stay on the original raised, molded pattern.  

Poop deck ready for non-skid...

Non-skid applied to poop deck.

     The application of the non-skid was very easy.  In fact, a thinning agent was not even used.  I simply mixed the paint thoroughly to distribute the silica particles, and then began application with a small-diameter foam roller.  The decks took two coats of the non-skid for the most even looking coverage.  The color of this product had more of a fleshy look than I had wanted.  I have decided that my next application of non-skid will be a custom blend of paint, and I myself will add the silica particles to the paint prior to application.  The ready-made Interdeck colors (4 total) just are not that exciting, but this will do for the next few years.