How to finish newly laid deck/floor.

[harryharls]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to the forum, although I have been able to use a lot of the advice I've found on here. I'm in the process of restoring an old (1992) Maxum 1800 XR, I've replaced the stringers and deck/floor (and a lot of other things!). The new deck is fully sheathed in fibreglass (polyester, not epoxy...I couldn't stomach the cost of epoxy for the whole project), the upper surface has two layers of 450g CSM. Originally, this boat had red carpet (everywhere!), I hated it and I hated the red colour scheme generally, so all the red has gone. All upholstery has been/is being replaced with white/grey rather than white/red. Anyway, sorry, I'm going off topic! Ideally, I would much rather not reinstall carpet on the deck at all. Can anyone suggest some good options for finishing the deck please? I've considered:

Sanding the CSM and laying a few coats of gelcoat/flowcoat and getting a nice smooth (slippery) finish.
If I do the above, what could I do to prevent the slippy factor?
Sanding the CSM and using something like KiwiGrip Non-Skid deck paint.
Laying this fake teak lino stuff, but I'm not really keen on this idea as it just seems like an invitation for water/moisture to end up trapped underneath it.
Gelcoating/flowcoating and using strategically placed carpet 'pieces' with bound edges, fastened down with velcro pads maybe??

What do you guys think? I REALLY don't want to carpet it again, it just seems like a ridiculous idea to me. We often use it for waterskiing, and getting in and out in wetsuits just saturates the carpet.

Any and all advice or suggestions will be much appreciated

 

[Bajansailor]

Just sand it, and paint it with special non-skid paint.
Or make your own non-skid paint - paint a small area at a time (especially if it is a paint that dries quickly), drench it with sand (that is washed / clean), and then repeat with other small areas until the whole deck is done.
At the end, sweep up all the loose sand, and apply another coat of paint over the whole area to seal it.
You will probably be surprised by how effective and simple this is.

 

[harryharls]

Thanks Bajansailor, I've decided to go with Hempel non-slip deck coating (light grey), with Hempel multicoat (light grey) for vertical areas and parts of the deck (a coat of multicoat first, then mask lines/curves, then a coat of non-slip). Hopefully it'll look good!