Dear Steve and Linda: I am following you book as a guide (maybe I should say Bible, as I suspect many others are also). I plan to use a lightweight tread plate on the walkways on the top of the hulls and a few other places. The builder is concerned that, when the tread gets wet, it will be quite slippery. He thinks that you must be putting something in the way of nonskid on the tread plate. I suspect he is wrong but thought I should check. He is recommending that I use normal aluminum decking and apply a cork-based product made in Great Britain [I believe]. I prefer to stay with the tread plate, but only if this going to give me good footing when wet. I would appreciate knowing your experiences with the tread plate decking, as far as being slippery when wet. Incidentally, you recommended that I go with 80 grit versus the 120 I had considered. Boy, were you right! It looks much better. I am going to use the Barnacle System, I think, and thought of finishing the bottom in 120 grit and running without bottom paint to see what happens with just the Barnaclean system. [Your thoughts?] -Bill
Hi Bill: The answer is that wet tread plate, on a heeled deck, is more slippery than a good treadmaster type of surface. It is a maintenance, aesthetic, function tradeoff. The variables are the type of tread plate, and what you wear on your feet. We have some very soft mountain climbing shoes, with little spikes on them, which work as well on our deck when it is wet as normal deck shoes on a moderate fiberglass tread. I am also happy with my bare feet–but you have to be careful when the boat has been sitting a while in a polluted area (like LA!). So, for very best anti-slip, your builder is correct. However, we’ve lived with the tradeoff on Beowulf and are happy with it–we also have 33″ high lifelines. As to no bottom paint, it will be interesting to see how this turns out. My suggestion would be to test a painted panel, and one with the sound system on it, and see how they do against each other. Let me know the results. Regards–Steve Dashew
Posted by Steve Dashew (November 30, 1999)
