Winter 2008-2009 Refit | Saturday, January 3, 2009
With the hull work essentially
complete, save for a couple details, it was time to knock
the deck work off my list. Quite frankly, the decks
required more than I was able to consider giving at this
stage, and I figured I had a few years till I'd have to
truly refinish the entire deck areas (along with port and
sealant renewal), so for now I concentrated on the nonskid,
which over the years had become rather slippery. In
addition, I'd had a few minor failures of the paint, from
impact on the foredeck (probably bouncing a boathook or the
headstay off the deck during mast stepping, and from excess
trapped moisture in the cockpit, where the cockpit cushions
live 100% of the time during the season. These facts,
coupled with the fact that the paint had faded somewhat and
just needed a freshening, caused me to put nonskid painting
on my list at this time.
The rest of the deck could
wait till later; the white Awlgrip was still in pretty good
condition, though beginning to show signs of its age.
Planning ahead, I knew there'd be a full deck job coming up
within the next several years; meantime, refreshing the
nonskid would be satisfactory.
To that end, I spent a
couple hours sanding the nonskid areas with 80 grit to
partially smooth the areas and to address the few areas
where the paint had failed. I also removed certain
hardware and the cockpit coamings. This was all I had
time for on this particular weekend. |