Making slipway Non-slip

[alistairedw]

My sailing club is considering installing Marina Deck fibreglass grating (glassfibre 12mm square mesh with silicon grit particles embedded onto surface) on our concrete slipway.

We are on the tidal Thames and consequently our dinghy launching/retrieving slipway gets silted up with slippery ooze quite quickly.

Has anyone any experience of how well this anti slip decking performs in this kind of environment? I am sure it works well on pontoons etc. How good would the grip be if we used the slipway without hosing the mud off the Marine Deck mesh?

Grateful for any input.

 

[decdeb]

We had the same issue with the slipway that our local sailing club uses. Slipway was literally that i.e. very slippy with growth of weed etc - not ideal for launching boats.

What we did was get members of the club down with shovels etc and cleared the worst of the weed, and then spread a bag of lime over the area. This worked a treat. It is a job that would need doing on an annual basis.
Declan.

 

[Tisme]

[ QUOTE ]
silicon grit particles

[/ QUOTE ]

That will be also be known as "sand" then? /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Lakesailor]

I have no experience of the mesh you speak of, but logic tells me that you would be capturing mud and slime rather than getting rid of it. It's like those holey door mats.

 

[alistairedw]

I agree. The grid squares will certainly tend to hold the ooze, but we are hoping that when you walk on the grid the liquid ooze will get squeezed out giving contact with the grippy surface.

Apparently some other clubs have had good experiences with the product, so I am going to ask the supplier if he can give me contacts I can talk to.

I think if we install the mesh with a small gap between the decking and the slipway this will partially address the accumulation issue and make it easier to clear away with the hose. We have a hosepipe ban starting soon so we may have problems keeping the slipway safe.

 

[Captain Coochie]

Always baffles me why people use fresh water to clean a slip when they have a bloody great big river at the end of the slip .
Ever thought of using a large bilge pump ?
Anyway Richmond Yacht club have the stuff your asking about , maybe give then a call .

 

[alistairedw]

Bilge pump is certainly a good idea. I will contact Richmond Yacht club and see what they think about the non slip decking.

Are they using it on a slipway?

 

[DaCostaGreene]

As long as the bits that are walked over are relatively clean the non-slip properties should stay the same. If anything, the extra silt might even assist the non-slip properties.

The bilgepump is a good idea or even a decent water pump from a garden centre, probably cheaper too!