Last month I pulled the boat out of the water and applied anti-fouling bottom paint to the entire bottom of the boat. This is to keep marine critters from taking up residence down yonder and turning No Bad Days into a marine garden.

This week I applied non skid paint to the entire topside decking. When she was made, they molded in sort of a micro waffle pattern all over the topside decks to allow safer moving about fore and aft. Over the last 40 years that pattern got all worn down and it has become pretty slippery and a bit dangerous. I applied this new paint to everything topside. It goes on thick like yogurt and then I rolled it with a a rough pattern roller and it dries into a very nice rough coating, providing good safe footing once again. I was able to do all this work with the boat in the water in my slip here in Dana.

it was a pretty big job because of the detail complexity of it all. the topside decks of the boat are a maze of pattern wrapping around the cockpit, the side decks, the deck hardware, the mast, the railings, the cabin top, etc. I had to mask out this complexity with tape and trim the tape around the corners in nice round edges.

I also has to scrub every inch of the old pattern with a little wire brush to get 40 years of grime out of all those little grooves so the new paint will stick well.

The new paint had to be applied in small sections at a time, working along bit by bit. I had to stop mid day for a few hours because the wind picked up and was causing the paint to dry too fast for me to roll the texture into it. I finished the last section as it was getting dark but then a fog rolled in all night and prevented it from drying properly and it was still wet then next morning, and all the carefully rolled texture had softened and flattened out so I had to do it all again over the next day.

Then I had to not walk on it for about 24 hours and since the 92% of every horizontal outside surface was painted, it was a real challenge to move around and get in and out of the boat for the day. I devised very gymnastic maneuvers to place my feet and hands carefully, and stay in balance so I didn’t fall into the paint or the water. This especially hard keeping in mind too that I still have a sprained foot to deal with. I stuck either a hand or foot into the paint at least 4 times during the day and had to re-apply the paint to those places.

Finally it was all done and dry and rough and it looks great and feels great under foot. I took her sailing today and it was all worth it. I could run and dance and play much more safely.