Badly painted deck!

[Hopingsail]

After some years of not owning a yacht (due to my wife's illness and death), I'm looking at a 32' GRP yacht from 1984 which amazingly we used to own 1997 - 2011!
In the meanwhile the current owner has hand-painted the deck with 2-pot paint using a brush. (He cannot recall the make of the paint...) He has done his best at it and it seems to have adhered well, but in all honesty it's not that good with brush marks and over-application readily visible. The deck was previously professionally sprayed with Awlgrip in 2007.
I am wondering if this might be rectified by light sanding / polishing?
Advice welcome please!

 

[William_H]

The problem of painting a GRP deck is that the usual non skid surface becomes smooth with paint. The only option then is to use a grip in new paint or attach sections on non skid. I think the 2 pack paint will be polyurethane very hard and almost impossible to remove. Ther are solvents for 2 pack used on aircraft (aluminium) but I would be concerned about the GRP being dissolved. I think if you buy the boat, that best bet is to accept what you get or try to smooth out brush marks and over application with sanding. Then yes if you want repaint but be aware of non skid needs. ol'will

 

[Sandy]

After some years of not owning a yacht (due to my wife's illness and death), I'm looking at a 32' GRP yacht from 1984 which amazingly we used to own 1997 - 2011!
In the meanwhile the current owner has hand-painted the deck with 2-pot paint using a brush. (He cannot recall the make of the paint...) He has done his best at it and it seems to have adhered well, but in all honesty it's not that good with brush marks and over-application readily visible. The deck was previously professionally sprayed with Awlgrip in 2007.
I am wondering if this might be rectified by light sanding / polishing?
Advice welcome please!

Hello and welcome to the forum

Wow that is a find!

Personally, apart from keel hauling the individual who painted the decks, I'd be getting the decks Awlgriped again. Sanding and polishing would result in 12 lashes with the cat-o-nine-tails.

 

[Stemar]

As William says, a two-pack paint will be smooth, and not as grippy as you'd want when things get bumpy. I'd be inclined to key the existing paint with 80-grit paper, which will allow you to remove brush marks and runs, then use a matt deck paint like this where you walk. I used this on my last boat and it worked well. The beige is a lot sunnier than it looks in the picture; I liked it Madame didn't so much. The rest of the decks, yes, another coat of two-pack, done properly this time. Google Roll and tip.

 

[Lightwave395]

As William says, a two-pack paint will be smooth, and not as grippy as you'd want when things get bumpy. I'd be inclined to key the existing paint with 80-grit paper, which will allow you to remove brush marks and runs, then use a matt deck paint like this where you walk. I used this on my last boat and it worked well. The beige is a lot sunnier than it looks in the picture; I liked it Madame didn't so much. The rest of the decks, yes, another coat of two-pack, done properly this time. Google Roll and tip.

Curiously I had a major issue with Premier deck paint a few years ago, no idea what went wrong but I needed pale grey which wasn't available and so bought a can of white and a can of grey, the resultant colour mix being just what I needed. I spent ages stripping the deck of most fittings - clutches, winches, rails etc etc, thoroughly cleaned and then repainted the whole deck, two coats with a roller, such that it looked great.
Ever since, everytime I clean the decks, with a microfibre cloth, soft deck brush or whatever, the water run off is pale grey and disappointingly is slowly wearing through the paint in a varoius areas.
I've repainted parts of the deck thus far with Hempel deck paint and it's fine however hard I scrub

 

[rotrax]

I would consider using 'KiwiGrip' non slip deck paint as an easy fix. Various colours, water based, easy to apply and after texturing with the special roller will look much better than what you have. Easy to touch up if you do as we did, separate panels with a 4 inch space between. If you have a worn panel, just mask up and re-do. Worth buying a small tin and the roller and trying it.