Why Leave The Borders Between Deck Grip Paint

[steamgoat]

On my last boat,which I built, I used Treadmaster on the deck.I spent many hours cutting and fitting. Having 'waterways' meant that the patterns did not have to align sheet to sheet and saved wasting a lot of expensive material,plus,it looked good !! Bruce.

[Boatguy30]

It really depends on the camber and slope of the decks. Flattish decks need the waterways or a lot of water will pool on the decks which can cause paint to blister, etc depending on type of paint, climate, etc.

But of course everyone wants to be contrarian these days. But that's the reality of why they're used.

[thinwater]

Originally Posted by Waterwayguy

We re-coated all of our decks with Tuffcoat and did away with all of the border areas. As a matter of fact, on the lower decks we lapped the coating up the gunnels about an inch. Everything drains just fine and we get lots of comments on how good it looks. Chuck

I've skinnied the clear area to ~ 1/2-inch on boats I've owned for the reasons given; the last 2 inches matter most when sliding on a wet deck, even cats.

Yes, Hinkley obviously does some things for looks more than function. A revelation. That dosn't make them losers.

[s/v 'Faith']

Originally Posted by thinwater

.......Yes, Hinkley obviously does some things for looks more than function. A revelation. That dosn't make them losers.

I think he was being facetious.

Waterways allow the decks to..... Never mind.

[David_Old_Jersey]

Originally Posted by Boatguy30

It really depends on the camber and slope of the decks. Flattish decks need the waterways or a lot of water will pool on the decks which can cause paint to blister, etc depending on type of paint, climate, etc.

But of course everyone wants to be contrarian these days. But that's the reality of why they're used.

I think that only applies if a boat has decks too flat - and can't be too many builders / designers dumb enough to do that........can there?

Certainly the leave gaps approach does include those with enough camber that gravity alone allows water to run off. In any event the covering alone (smooth or grippy) won't dictate whether water pools.

Of course I could be the missing the fact that there are anti-slip paints / coverings out there that grip water so well they stop it flowing downhill..........

[Roy M]

I used 1 inch tape between my deck patches. The reason I use is that I can tape the entire deck, scribe the corner radii with a razor, then paint alternate patches and apply sand while standing in the alternate patch. Then when done, I begin the process in the alternates. Then, I remove the tape from all of them in one operation. It's primarily a means to step across the freshly painted surfaces. Since the base coat is a different color than the non skid, I don't have to repaint the base coat, i.e., the "waterways" as often as I redo the nonskid, which wears off the color coat atop the sand grains after several years.

[Bash]

Originally Posted by charliehows

ok, thats good - the drainage thing - bs - i dont hear any reason apart from cosmetics, just wondered if there was some esoteric little bit of cleverness in the design, but no, it just looks pretty even if it breaks yer bloody neck. thanks.

Fascinating. You ask a question and three different people quickly respond about waterways, and then you claim this to be "bs" and say "i dont hear any reason apart from cosmetics."

Maybe you're not listening? Why ask the question in the first place?

[Krogensailor]

Just my guess, but if one asks a question, one might just get answers that might just diverge a bit from ones present point of view. Some this way, some that. That's the point of the question. Expecting something different to happen? Well that's pure bs and silly. Pick your answer and paint your deck

[David M]

You wanted opinions Charlie and you got 'em.

It's a bit outside of the Be Nice rule to call other peoples opinions BS.

[Bash]

Originally Posted by Boatguy30

It really depends on the camber and slope of the decks. Flattish decks need the waterways or a lot of water will pool on the decks which can cause paint to blister, etc depending on type of paint, climate, etc.

But of course everyone wants to be contrarian these days. But that's the reality of why they're used.

Don't forget about mold. Without waterways, especially on flat decks, dirt collects in the pools and then you get mold which, I'm told, can be slippery.

[SailFastTri]

If you have slippery areas you can just use non-skid tape. I used the 3M Safety Walk non-skid tape to cover slippery metal parts and borders, and it works great. If you clean and de-wax the deck first, it sticks for years and holds up well to UV and freeze/thaw. Mine is about 6 years old and still looks almost like new. It cleans well too, and I don't give it any special attention.

PS -- I have no financial interest in the stuff. It works.

[Jim Cate]

G'Day all

Are we trying to say that water will not run over non-skid areas, that it only will run via the "waterways"? Does not make sense to me... how does the water get from the middle of the non-skid areas to the "waterways" in that case?

In the case of literally flat and dead horizontal decks, water will stand no matter what the surface is. If there is some gradient, then it will run downhill, over slick or non-skid surfaces. Perhaps there would be some differences in velocity, but hard to imagine water just sticking to a sloping deck with non-skid surfaces. Decks with "hollows" where ponds might form are an abomination, "waterways" or not.

I've re-done my decks in the recent past and agree with Roy M that the job is made easier with isolated patches of non-skid... the final product looks better as well IMO.

Cheers,

Jim

[charliehows]

i'm not counting but i seem to have a bunch of people saying they dont bother with 'waterways' in practice and dont have any problems, and a bunch of people talking about the theory - I'm only interested in what works - my 'waterways' are gone and guess what - no pools! But - sorry if anyone was offended by my comment...

[minaret]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

G'Day all

Are we trying to say that water will not run over non-skid areas, that it only will run via the "waterways"? Does not make sense to me... how does the water get from the middle of the non-skid areas to the "waterways" in that case?

In the case of literally flat and dead horizontal decks, water will stand no matter what the surface is. If there is some gradient, then it will run downhill, over slick or non-skid surfaces. Perhaps there would be some differences in velocity, but hard to imagine water just sticking to a sloping deck with non-skid surfaces. Decks with "hollows" where ponds might form are an abomination, "waterways" or not.

I've re-done my decks in the recent past and agree with Roy M that the job is made easier with isolated patches of non-skid... the final product looks better as well IMO.

Cheers,

Jim

Waterways need to be done around hardware. If you mount a piece of hardware on non skid instead of smooth, the bedding will fail much faster, in part because of the moisture held against the seam by the skid. Once you've laid out water ways around all hardware for this reason, it doesn't take much more to properly finish the job. It looks nice and doesn't take long. Anything less is just lazy.

[Blue Stocking]

Originally Posted by minaret

Waterways need to be done around hardware. If you mount a piece of hardware on non skid instead of smooth, the bedding will fail much faster, in part because of the moisture held against the seam by the skid. Once you've laid out water ways around all hardware for this reason, it doesn't take much more to properly finish the job. It looks nice and doesn't take long. Anything less is just lazy.

+1 gets my vote for best answer.