Anti slip

[Alan Wheeler]

I am going to do some painting this summer (southern hemi) and was wondering if anyone had any products or mixtures or tips on deck anti skid products.
Personally I don't like sand in paint. It is too hard to remove later on when the time comes and it looks untidy. I know of commercial fishing boats that use carborundum, but it wears your shoes away in no time and it ain't any better than the look of sand anyway. I did come across a product made by Ados that had rubber chip in the coating. Interesting idea, but I don't know what it holds up like. Any other thoughts, suggestions, brew's??

[ozskip]

A product made by international paints is what i use called intergrip a pollypropylene non-skid additive that can be mixed in any paint or varnish and found to be very good. Greg

[Wahoo Sails]

I have used intergrip also ... gets my vote! Plastic beads (looks like sugar) absorbs the color of the paint, not only easy on the knees when you have to be on them, but the round edges don't hold dirt like the sharp edges of sand. As for traction ... I feel secure on it, even when the decks are covered in soapy water!

L S/V Eva Luna
Bob

[defiant_ted]

I have seen a new paint product out in Auckland- it is a latex based paint on product by Benjamin Moore-

my marina neighbor used it- i am sold easy to use and looks great- seems to have great bonding characteristics as well- i am painting it on my GRP decks will update you when i have first hand experience.

[Alan Wheeler]

Hi Ted. I will be most interested in hearing the results. What sort of cost are we talking?

[Chuck Baier]

Hope you have some good results with this but really can't imagine a latex paint holding up for any length of time under cruising conditions.

[Euro Cruiser]

Alan & the group:

Sometimes one finds a diversity of product choices and many of them are actually superior. It's almost like one can't make a bad choice. Examples include self-steering vanes, jib furling systems, navigation systems and more.

But sometimes it's tough to find a truly superior solution to an age-old question, which is why vendors keep pumping out alternative choices for us and painting a non-skid deck may be one of them. Even flow of the material, presentable appearance, resistance to collecting dirt, and especially long-term wear make this a challenging project, in my experience.

Products like Intergrip, which are tiny microscopic balloons of plastic and which float to the surface of the paint as it's applied to a surface, provide very even coverage. Their problem is that they wear quickly (woud you expect less of little plastic balls?) and so the deck loses it's grip relatively quickly in the high-action areas if the boat's being worked regularly (e.g. being used for full-time cruising).

Additives that last longer (crushed walnut shells, sand and other abrasives) are good dirt catchers, can be hard on clothing and skin, and also offer optimum performance only as long as the paint lasts, since recoating will somewhat bury the abrasive surface and in turn require another application of the additive...and so you get build-up, which can lead to the deck getting paint-rich and forcing one to start the process all over again. I've seen some very nice jobs that are LPU + abrasive additive but, if the boat is being kept and especially sailed heavily, for longer periods of time, the paints going to wear off the abrasive and repainting will be needed.

One option I never see discussed is the 'less is more' choice: use salt as an additive. Lay on your final coat while sprinkling salt crystals just as you would sand, shell or spheres, seeking as much abrasive surface as you wish. When the paint sets up, wash off the deck. You'll have a non-skid surface without anything to wear off, other than the paint itself. With a hard paint, you'll get as much wear as is possible.

Jack

[Euro Cruiser]

I came across this interesting boat website yesterday that Alan may find useful:

www.yachtvalhalla.net

The owner has been cruising in the W Pacific, Oz to Guam and much around the PI for many years. He describes a very thorough refurb and, in part, talks about using a commercial cork non-skid product for his decks when repainting: soft on the body, grippy, apparently not too hard to work with. I would have worried about the cork breaking off in use, both lifting paint and marginalizing the non-skid performance, but he says otherwise and the deck must now be over a decade in constant use.

Bet he'd correspond with you if you had more questions...

Jack

[delmarrey]

Cork it what we use to use on the PBR' an Swift boats over in Nam. There seem to be a lot available there. It's a bit hard to find here, that is ground up.

I do remember it worked real well. Don't remember ever slipping aboard the boats.

It use to wear down pretty fast But we wore boots aboard, not deck shoes.

And thanks for the link! We have a lot in common with the Vahalla and'r crew.
.............._/)