Revival of Ericson Nonskid Decks [Master Thread]

[JPS27]

Thread original title: Can I Revive my Nonskid

I'm becoming known around the marina as "the iceman" due to my slippery deck. When I clean my deck I use soap supposedly for decks (ie, not supposed to turn it in to a skating rink). A couple of people who I assume know what they are talking about because their livelihood is working on sailboats have both said I should put a new nonskid surface on. One said awlgrip. the other said kiwigrip. I say, not right now, because I've been doing enough work on the boat and now I'd like to focus on using the boat. I realize it's too slick, but since this is my first boat I didn't know any better. No doubt it's slick, but I've gotten used to it and I don't go out when it's howling out.

In the interim is there a way I can try to revitalize the grippy-ness of my nonskid? I figured I'd start with that question and leave the "tips for applying a new surface" for a later time. The pic attached is taken with me leaning over the side with feet on dock looking at starboard side of cockpit seat. thanks.

Jay

 

[Christian Williams]

In a picture, that looks like a perfect surface.

What happens if you scrub it with TSP, or --after a test--acetone? Just to make sure no residual wax.

Real nonskid is rare these days, because it catches dirt and hurts skin. I don't miss paint with sand in it.

Sometimes the issue is shoes. Many "deck shoes" act as roller blades. Of my five pairs, only two are suitable for sailing--the others, actually dangerous. .

Just some thoughts...

 

[Eric Gordon]

I ran across this in my search

As one of the myriad of projects on my E27 is the repainting of the deck and ensuring the original non-skid is either maintained or replaced. I ran across this in my search a while back....

http://gibcoflexmold.com/patterns/

I have no idea if this is any good....and this is at the lower end of my todo list for Lono Kai. I also recall seeing someone do a video on replacing ericson non-skid...but I couldnt locate it in my history. Good luck to you.

 

[tenders]

If you're happy with the way your deck is performing for the way you use the boat and the way you choose to allocate your maintenance time and money, I would say don't listen to people who think they know better.

if you decide to go down this path, my experience has been that adding sand or grit to paint is a limited improvement over worn nonskid, and shows a lot of underlying surface flaws. Kiwigrip is easier, a larger improvement over worn nonskid, and covers most underlying flaws. Remolding nonskid...nobody in their right mind has time for that.

Another thing to consider before you go refinishing decks: is the core underneath sound, or are you going to find yourself ripping up relatively new-looking deck to do core patches or replacement?

 

[e38 owner]

The surface looks not to bad

The surface looks not to bad.
I would try cleaning with something like Acetone as stated above there may be wax on the surface.
You want to never wax the non skid.

It could also be the shoes.
Old deck shoes the rubber gets hard and they just don't work well.
Last year I invited someone racing with us. She wiped alcohol on her shoes before heading to the foredeck
Greatest thought ever. Like new basketball shoes on a new clean basketball court. sticky sticky

 

[CSMcKillip]

I had a race boat Capri25 before our 33. It got t boned in a race- long story short I replaced a 3' section of deck and a 3' hole in the side.

can you replace non skid, yep.
can you mold non skid, yep.
can you gelcoat non skid, yep.

I am now older so when I was 30 it was doable but still a PITA. Making non skid molds out of the deck with PVA, clean with acetone and doing glass layup on a perfectly good deck takes a lot of skill and clean work.

 

[bhowell123]

I'm becoming known around the marina as "the iceman" due to my slippery deck. When I clean my deck I use soap supposedly for decks (ie, not supposed to turn it in to a skating rink). A couple of people who I assume know what they are talking about because their livelihood is working on sailboats have both said I should put a new nonskid surface on. One said awlgrip. the other said kiwigrip. I say, not right now, because I've been doing enough work on the boat and now I'd like to focus on using the boat. I realize it's too slick, but since this is my first boat I didn't know any better. No doubt it's slick, but I've gotten used to it and I don't go out when it's howling out.

In the interim is there a way I can try to revitalize the grippy-ness of my nonskid? I figured I'd start with that question and leave the "tips for applying a new surface" for a later time. The pic attached is taken with me leaning over the side with feet on dock looking at starboard side of cockpit seat. thanks.

Jay

I have revived non skid on 2 boats using Interlux Interdeck paint. The pain in the process is taping around the raised nonskid area, but once you get thru that it is just painting. I have not found the need to add any additional abrasive, which is available. Provides a very nice, grippy surface that is still comfy on bare feet. Comes in several colors. I have been very happy with this solution. There are also rubberized adhesive solutions (pricey)

 

[adam]

I've got the same issue. After who knows how many paint jobs on my deck through the years, my non-skid is super slippery.

Ive seen at least one Ericson, where they added grit to the paint to try to solve this problem and most of it seemed to go into the cracks. It didn't look good and obviously a lot of the effectiveness wasn't there.

I've considered grinding down the non-skid flat and repainting it with some sort of textured paint. Now, I'm debating the opposite might be easier -- Use epoxy heavily thickened with fairing filler to fill in the grooves.

Am I overthinking things? Does something like Interdeck Paint work just fine?

 

[Christian Williams]

Grinding, filling--I can safely say I'd never take on that project.

If the nonskid really has been painted over by previous owners, yes, you can tape and paint with new (as mentioned above).

It's not a trivial job, it has to look great or devalue the boat, and you have to hope the product works as advertised for the next 10 years or so.

At least try the different shoes trick first. It was an eye-opener for me, and the topic of outrageously slippery "topsiders" has come up on all the yachting forums in all the countries. And shoes that stick today may not next year, as they harden with age.

 

[Loren Beach]

What Christian said.
:0
Further, the best final finish product I have seen is KiwiGrip. Great product, altho like all non skid surface solutions, the real work is in the prep and taping.

Try some searches on this and other sailing sites, also.

I entered "Kiwi Grip" into our search box and got a lot of hits, like this one.
http://www.ericsonyachts.org/infoexchange/showthread.php?10066-Non-skid-deck&highlight=kiwigrip

Loren

 

[alcodiesel]

Hi Jay.
I rolled this on the cockpit deck: https://www.jamestowndistributors.c...Name=TotalBoat+TotalTread+Non-Skid+Deck+Paint

It looks good and has held up. Easy to apply. Very grippy.

Also, I found $15 slip on sneakers at Walmart- super grip dry or wet. Soft white rubber soles.

 

[907Juice]

Sand in paint?

We were on a boat in lapaz and the owner said he uses sand in his topside paint. I didn’t get a recipe but it felt just right on bare feet. I would only assume it would be even better with shoes on. I was gonna give it a try when I paint my topside in the next year or so. Thoughts?

Juice

 

[Christian Williams]

Been a long time, but that's what we used to use on painted canvas. It murdered skin and wore off fast and a constant pattern was hard to get, but it did work. There are better nonskid coatings now.

BY the way, on the new boat I did a lot of work in the lazarette, and every time I stood in it my feet slipped down the curve of the hull. That got tiresome, so I painted a couple of square feet down there with a non-skid product from West Marine. It's gray, and seems to have rubber bits in it.

It was a big success and doesn't slip under foot. But it's thicker than paint, and would not hold to the slope, and ran down to form pools I had to keep mopping up as it cured. I can't remember the product name, but in that confined space I do remember a mess that took me hours to clean up.

 

[kapnkd]

A possible non-skid option for your cockpit at least

The fore deck non skid on our '73 E32-II is still holding up but the cockpit area - not so much.

We found an alternative called "Eva Teak" which is a relatively inexpensive product found on-line. Here's a sample site: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=Yacht+EVA+Foam+Teak+Boat+Teak+Decking

Although mostly used on power boat deck and platform areas, it's soft to the touch, looks like teak and has a 3M sticky backing that just peels off (NO messy glues). I made patterns from brown paper rolls bought at HD and it was surprisingly easy to cut the material with just scissors.

(We need to order more material to finish off the cockpit sole and will do so in the spring.)

 

[kapnkd]

Check out what we did with Eva Teak in our E32 cockpit (hull 296)

 

[toddster]

^That looks quite nice from a distance - I'd like to see some up close some time.
After a few near-injury ladder incidents, I recently added a few pieces of Tiflex "Treadmaster" material, which is working out great and is very comfortable underfoot - quite expensive though. According to the package, they have a number of such products, including some that glow in the dark. :nerd:

For existing non-skid though, I think repainting is a clear winner. My only experience is that at the end of my last bottom job, I had a small amount of leftover gray Interprotect 2000 and 20 minutes to do something with it. So I rolled it on to the cockpit non-skid. What could it hurt? (I thought) I was planning to repaint the whole deck soon (!) anyway. Although it is not designed for that purpose, it still looks pretty good and definitely made the surface more grippy.

 

[716Ericson27]

Can I revive nonskid?

I re-did all the non-skid on my E27 with Kiwigrip and have been very pleased. It did take a little practice to get the texture just right, but overall was an easy project.

 

[adam]

I re-did all the non-skid on my E27 with Kiwigrip and have been very pleased. It did take a little practice to get the texture just right, but overall was an easy project.
View attachment 23414View attachment 23413

How did you prep for that? Did you just put it directly over the original "grid" non-skid?

 

[adam]

We were on a boat in lapaz and the owner said he uses sand in his topside paint. I didn’t get a recipe but it felt just right on bare feet. I would only assume it would be even better with shoes on. I was gonna give it a try when I paint my topside in the next year or so. Thoughts?

I've seen two other Ericson's that used sand.

I believe one of them ground down the original non-skid such that it was flat then applied the new surface and it looked and worked great.

And I saw another one that tried putting paint with sand over the original "grid" and the sand seemed to settle into the holes with almost none on top. It didn't look good and I assume didn't work well either.

 

[Mark F]

Hi Kapnkd,

I would also like to see some closeup photos especially the edges of the material. How is the adhesive holding up? Looks really good and I can imagine it is comfortable and grippy.