No slip ups!

When out sailing, the boat’s deck can be very slippery, especially when wet. This makes a good non-slip surface an essential safety item. As you can see from the photos, Escapade’s anti-slip was very worn (and dirty). Time to refresh.

There are many ways to make a boat’s decks non-slip; several kinds of paint and even stick on surfaces. We decided on Kiwigrip. This is a thick liquid applied with a special roller. The texture of the roller, along with the pressure during application effects the ‘peaks’ of the anti-slip. The demonstrators at the Boat Show made it look easy!

As with most things in life, when applying Kiwigrip, good preparation is key. This ensures that there is good adhesion to the gel coat.

The first job was to sand back the old anti-slip. This was my job; no technical skills required. It took a while, but it was a great job when the sun was shining, especially as I had an electric sander.

Next, another job for me; a good clean. This got rid of any dirt and grease left on the gel coat.

Finally, came the technical part, so it was over to Martin for masking the area including carefully cutting the curved corners.

After spending all that time on preparation, the rollering was the easy part. Spread on the paint with a serrated comb to get an even spread and roll. The paint is workable for about 20 minutes depending on the weather conditions, but that was plenty of time for the small area that we were doing. This allowed us to roller over it in several directions and gave us a very uniform texture.

All that remained was to remove the masking tape and allow it to dry.

Very impressive….although several other boat owners wondered why we were artexing the decks!!