David Thatcher wrote:
If you have a lot of camber on the deck you do need a good non-skid coating if traversing the deck area when the boat is upright. We have quite a steep camber on the deck of 'Footprints' with a non-skid paint which is a bit worn down, so I do feel a bit 'could slip' if going forward in wet conditions.
I remember when a friend of mine launched his new Schionning cat, which has very rounded deck edges. He was standing on the bow as the boat came alongside the dock. The deck was wet because he had been washing off the grit from the launching. His wife suddenly put the engines hard astern and the boat jerked to a standstill. He slid gracefully into the water, thereby discovering that his non-skid paint, while it looked very smart, wasn't very effective. I had a heavily-cambered flush deck on my last boat, Mudshark, and used cork and epoxy to make an effective non-skid surface. But it was like sandpaper, and just as effective in taking off skin. Then I coated it with a couple of coats of a rubber-based paint, Emmerclad, which made it more comfortable. It was a sod to clean, though. Bare teak decks are nice in cool climates, but too hot for me in the tropics. These days I use a commercial deck paint and add extra non-skid granules. It is still a sod to clean, but luckily I am not fastidious.
