A very short voyage

I decided to move the boat under cover to repair the problems in the deck and coachroof. Since there's a boatyard a short walk from my house, the choice of where to do it was very simple. Expensive, but simple anyway. Old Mill Creek has a lot going for it, a nice place to be, but dealing with tides and huge tarpaulins wasn't an attractive option.

So I had a little voyage, pushing the boat up the river with a borrowed 6hp outboard.

I pulled the cat round from the beach to the pontoon ready for the move 6 miles up the picturesque river Dart the following day and...

Well there it is in the yard. I failed to take any snaps on the way up the picturesque river. The wind was strong and variable in direction, and the outboard a little underpowered for the job, so I had to concentrate. And on arrival, they wanted to take the mast down.

I asked the boat movers in the yard to leave the boat out in the open  for the weekend so that I could do the dirty work on the decks before I go under cover.

The decks were a mess - the raised gel coat diamond pattern hadn't been installed well, and was coming up in places. And there would be places I'd be replacing so deck where I didn't fancy the palaver of repairing the diamond pattern. Anyway, it's terrible stuff those hard diamonds. Not nice on bare feet (and I prefer bare feet when I'm sailing - it's nice to feel the deck directly underfoot, and less chance of slipping). And quite a bit of work to fix up whenever there's work to be done on the deck or around deck fittings, so I decided to take it off.

The plan is to smooth out the decks, coat with a couple of coats of epoxy primer, and then a top coat. For the non-slip finish, the cheapest and I think best option is to use textured exterior masonry paint. I've used it before. It's far cheaper than any marine 'non-slip' paint. It's durable. It's water-based, so easy to use and easy to clean up afterwards - and if it does get scuffed up - it is dead easy and quick to paint over again.