The cockpit sole boards aboard Whimbrel have needed to be stripped back for a couple of seasons. The paint layer thickness was becoming excessive (notoriously tough resistance to sanding!) and in places adherence was breaking down.
As an experiment, I had applied a single coat of a different non-slip paint from Teamac as I was increasingly unimpressed with either Hempel or International products. Quite frankly neither of them gave a respectable non-slip finish, even with added ‘sand’ in the mix.
So, after enjoying a sail on the day the festive tree was set aloft and considering ongoing forecasts we transported them all home.
It was an excellent pre-Christmas sail, with a kindly breeze allowing us to break away from Lawling Creek and beat up to Heybridge Basin before running back downriver.
Over Christmas the tides are all ‘wrong’ that is they’re early and late. The New Year period brings middle of the day tides … so, just enough time for the job!
In many respects getting the boards home ‘early’ was more than helpful: it took longer to complete the project – I’m not one for shortcuts!
A heat gun and orbital sander came into their own as paint removal and preparation progressed nicely outside on two windy yet sunny days.
One of the things I have not done is to use a middle under coat between the silver primer/undercoat and non slip for we have found that deck paint does not adhere to coatings such as ‘oneup’ primer undercoat (made by International Paints).
I wonder if others have had similar problems.
I also wonder if the apparent incompatibility is due in part to the different make up of the paints. The aluminium primer/undercoat and non slip use a solvent thinners, whilst ‘oneup’ uses white spirit…
Some epoxy and filler repairs were needed to two of the boards as the ply surface had been torn by the heating and scraping off of the paint.
Words aren’t really needed as the pictorial flow tells the story, but not of the time and effort made!
Progress prior to Christmas was on course to allow shipping sole boards back aboard Whimbrel for a sail as soon as tide times allow.
Once the initial preparations were completed, it was a case of essentially a coat each day. The aluminium primer being quick drying allowed two coats on a day, which made life easier…
In the coatings completed view the course or roughness, if you like, texture of the deck coating can be seen. It is certainly effective when sailing and Whimbrel has some heel on her. With a single test coat previously applied, I did not slip on any subsequent occasion…
Time will tell!