Finishing Off Fiberglassed Decks

[Kevin]

I also used kiwi grip. Here are a few things I've learned...

1st, For the record, it's not as super grippy as they say unless you leave it really rough, then it's great and Chad is right about it being hard on the knees so I wear knee pads.

2nd point, I found kiwi grip to not completely block out the under coating. My finish color and my primer were not the same color and you can see this through the kiwigrip. If you have non white kiwigrip this may be a non issue.

3rd point, I've found that the kiwi grip stains a little bit over time from the elements. It just starts to look a little spotty in the low spots. Part of this is the nature of the texture, part of it is the material itself I think. Mostly it scrubs off if you take the time to do that. I put a tarp over my cockpit area which has worked great at keeping 90% of the boat clean while stored outdoors, next time I'll get a 9' x 12' tarp instead of a 8' x 10' tarp so it covers the whole cockpit from mast to transom.

4th point, It's water based and completely different than perfection (2-part) or top-sides (1-part) paints. You do have to sand the perfection to take the gloss off.

5th point, I did some patch painting this spring and painted over the kiwi grip with little prep. Those areas look great but I haven't tried them for non-skidness (it's right at the bow where I did that). It's also fully exposed to the elements so I'll know more about how it holds up by the end of the sailing season here.

I used 2 techniques for applying kiwi grip.
- For the side decks and foredeck I used a regular 3/8" nap roller to apply the kiwi grip and then I textured it with their "special" roller. This left me with a comfortable seating area on the side decks with some grip. Bare feet are ok, but if it's wet you'd probably slip. If you wear deck shoes you should be ok on it.
- For the cockpit sole I only used the "special" roller only and applied the kiwigrip as heavy as I could. This left a very grippy surface that is hard on bare feet and harder on the knees. For the cockpit sole, I'd consider the Hydroturf idea.

Kevin.

p.s. I'm considering sanding my cockpit sole and installing hydroturf after sailing in Chad's boat with it installed. Not sure how it will sand off, but it would be a workout for the orbital sander that's for sure.

[ryderp]

I'm fairly happy with my grip surface. I just spread Awlgrip Griptex (small polyethylene beads) on top of wet Perfection and after the paint dried put another coat of Perfection on top. Very easy - but if you go this route, make sure that you over-do-it with the Griptex and then vacuum off the excess before applying the finish coat. This surface seems to give nice grippyness (if that's a word) without abrasiveness. The Hydroturf on Chad's boat is very nice and is a good option.

[Tim Ford]

Good stuff, thanks a lot peoples of the i550 world.