Deck Nonskid Matching

[Christian Williams]

When this boat was built a water-tank fill hole was drilled in the wrong location. No doubt this occurred at 4:56 pm on a Friday.

The mistake was repaired with what looks like epoxy--after the nonskid treatment ("paint") was applied. I believe the whitish feathering is epoxy.

So--how to cosmetically improve this?

We're not supposed to apply gel coat over epoxy (so says my gel coat kit). And anyhow, the area isn't gel coat, it's the nonskid coating.

The color is "stone," with a vague hint of green.

Any ideas? Do we know what the nonskid coating was, back in 1984?

 

[Parrothead]

The non-skid is gel coat and is applied in this sequence:
(Note: The deck is created from the top down in a negative mold with the non-skid pattern in the mold)

1. The mold is waxed (the parting agent)
2. The non-skid areas are masked off
3. The entire mold is sprayed with (in your case) white gelcoat
4. The masking is pulled exposing the mold in the non-skid areas
5. The entire mold is sprayed with a contrasting color gelcoat. Only the previously masked area shows through
6. Mat, cloth, roving and core material laminations follow

This may help in forming a strategy for the cosmetic repair of the area you pictured. The attachment is a negative deck mold before any masking or gelcoat application.

 

[bgary]

We're not supposed to apply gel coat over epoxy

Gel coat will stick to epoxy just fine. The epoxy just has to be fully cured (I suspect 30+ years is sufficient), and any amine-blush has to have been scrubbed off.

Bruce

 

[Christian Williams]

I now have learned (thanks) that the nonskid-patterned areas are indeed gel coat, not paint (other other coating).

Their color is a nicely contrasting "stone" color, only slightly faded after all these years and still providing a degree of traction.

Question, if anybody knows:

How did the factory give gel coat, which is usually rock hard and smooth, that "sticky" attribute?

 

[bgary]

How did the factory give gelcoat... that "sticky" attribute?

there are all sorts of additives you can mix into gel oat, to make a “matte” finish, or give it texture, etc.

I don’t know what Ericson used, but back in the day fine pumice or talc were used fairly commonly. Sometimes microbaloons, too.

$.02

 

[Parrothead]

There was no additive mixed into the gelcoat at the factory other than catalyst for the original molding process. If by "sticky" you mean the non-skid pattern, that is in the mold but I don't think that's what you meant. If you mean it has a tacky surface as if it didn't fully cure, that is likely an area that has been repaired with gelcoat with either none or not enough surfacing agent added. Let me explain why the last sentence is not a contradiction of the first sentence.

All catalyzed gelcoat air cures to a tacky finish unless it has wax added. At the factory the wax was applied to the mold as a release agent and the gelcoat picked it up in the molding process to get the rock hard finish we know. Using the same gelcoat for touch up or repair for color matching reasons, it is applied outside of the mold so the wax component must be added. A popular way was to add surfacing agent (a wax) to the repair mix. Another was to spray polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) over the freshly sprayed gelcoat repair.

I suspect if you have a tacky area of your gelcoat it is likely a previous repair by an unknowing previous owner.

 

[gabriel]

When this boat was built a water-tank fill hole was drilled in the wrong location. No doubt this occurred at 4:56 pm on a Friday.

The mistake was repaired with what looks like epoxy--after the nonskid treatment ("paint") was applied. I believe the whitish feathering is epoxy.

So--how to cosmetically improve this?

We're not supposed to apply gel coat over epoxy (so says my gel coat kit). And anyhow, the area isn't gel coat, it's the nonskid coating.

The color is "stone," with a vague hint of green.

Any ideas? Do we know what the nonskid coating was, back in 1984?

View attachment 27121

I personally wouldn't use gelcoat to repair this. From the pic it looks like the stanchion base doesn't have non skid texture molded into it. Remove stanchion, clean and sand area smooth. "Fair" area with epoxy mixed with west system 410 microlight fairing compound then sand smooth so the fairing only remains in the crack and low areas. tape off and paint with 1 part poly. Go sailing and please make us another entertaining video

 

[Baslin]

My boat has the same mistake with the fresh water fill....or was it a mistake??

I just finished painting the topsides last weekend and will be doing the non-skid possibly this weekend coming up. We are using Kiwi Grip

 

[Christian Williams]

there are all sorts of additives you can mix into gel oat, to make a “matte” finish, or give it texture, etc.

Thanks, Bruce. That explains it.

Baslin, here's a theory about this error: When they went from the E38 to the E381, the interior changed. On the 381, the old fill hole was now on the wrong side of a bulkhead.

Yeah but, nobody changed the deck hole template....oops. There are eight hulls between yours and mine, 505-513. I wonder if they all have the wrong hole.

 

[Christian Williams]

Here's my "solution" to the offhanded fill of the factory's old mistake.



Sand away filler to make a square.
Fill square with white gel coat.



There was no way to match the existing nonskid gel coat color, so I didn't try.

I just declared it a "placard."

 

[Kenneth K]

I just declared it a "placard."

Clever fix. I might have labeled one "Rum," just on the off chance......

 

[bgary]

I might have labeled one "Rum,"......

Heh. For a couple of years I raced on a sled called "Coruba", named for the owner's favorite brand of rum.

She had a third foot-pump under the galley sink, with a corresponding spigot for... yup, rum. Dedicated rum tank under the sink, just hold your glass in place and step on the pedal.

It's good to have priorities.

(it's probably good to have discretion, too. their tender was called "rum-runner", and that sometimes got interesting when clearing customs...)

 

[Kenneth K]

I pulled two leaky deck-fill ports and had to repair the fiberglass in those regions. Rather than mess with gelcoat (which I know nothing about) I decided to paint with Interlux Brightside.

I always thought my non-skid was tan/beige, so I mixed in a little Testors model enamel, in brown and yellow, to the white Brightside. The resulting tan was off a bit (left of photo), so I added some blue, which brought it a little closer (right of photo). The gloss of the Brightside probably stands out more than the color mis-match.

 

[Randy Rutledge]

Kiwi grip is great applied in 2012, boat sank in Mobile Bay storm April 2015 for 18 days, recovered and it still looks good

 

[paul culver]

I have a dim memory of someone posting at this site of a dash of gray colorant added to E-boat gel coat. Ah, Google found it:

Expanding on Frank's comment, Ericson white is not white but a light grey. I discovered this by patching scratches with white. A local repair yard claims that the Ericson gel coat is one of the most difficult to match

This was a response to a post by treilley on 12/21/2006. Lots of other input in there on the topic.

 

[SteveCrane]

Great thread. I have a 1983 E28+ and need to do the decks at long last. Much good info here on how to proceed so much appreciated. I have another question, however. My hull is a "very light coffee" or "cocoa cream" color, which may be a poor description at best. I haven't found any listing for E28 hull colors of my vintage, but have noted the mention of beige and champagne in other models. While matching the original hull color is likely to be a daunting effort if I ever need to do this, I'm wondering if anyone else has a hull color generally similar to mine that might get me closer to a match than starting from scratch. From a prior owner there is already a patch with a similar color that is only somewhat close. I'm not looking to add a third color, but am more curious about the name for the original color. Many thanks for any thoughts anyone might have.

 

[Christian Williams]

I think the consensus is that the original formula for color, even if we knew it, isn't much value because of fading over many years.

I used Awlgrip color-chip charts, printed on paper, to select the appropriate tone for a transom repaint. It was a head-scratcher, because time of day, sky condition and viewing angle all affected the color impression. Didn't matter much because the transom always has a different sun angle than the topsides.

A neighboring boat painted the decks in the slip, with excellent result ("Ericson 38 Deck Paint", below) . I would just pick an Awlgrip color that seemed right (and then go one shade lighter....)

Painting Deck and Hull [Master Thread]

My new dock neighbor, Hank Toles*, is refinishing his decks with two-part paint. He had some minor gelcoat wear. As usual the effect is new-boat shiny, and a reminder that old boats can gleam again. *Update 2024: Hank Toles died a few years after the job was finished. The boat has...

ericsonyachts.org

Rolling and Tipping cabin top with Awlgrip

I was inspired by one of Christian Williams’ posts about his neighbors boat that had the top deck rolled and tipped, as well as adding sand to the existing raised nonskid areas. This project took me about 2 weeks, and I still have a day or two left of touching up some areas where the gray seeped...

ericsonyachts.org