Non-skid repair

[tonywright]

Here goes my first post to this board. I have been reading all the useful posts for a while , thanks to all of you. It helped in making our decision to acquire a MKII, which became ours just a couple of weeks ago. She was trucked from Boston to Ottawa. We will be sailing out of Nepean Sailing Club on the Ottawa River, Canada.

There are a few jobs to be done, and one of these is to repair the non-skid where voids have caused the gelcoat to crack and break. After reading the posts here, it seems the standard recommendation is to gelcoat and then carve. This seems very time consuming and requires some skill to produce a good result. So I have searched and found another solution. I discovered that a company called Gibco makes a self-releasing mat molded to the profile of the non-skid, and there are instructions from West System on how to use it:

http://www.westsystem.com/ewmag/22/nonskid.html

I called them, and they are sending samples that should match the Catalina pattern. Has anybody got experience using this system?


Thanks

Tony

[Ron Hill]

Tony : Where are your deck voids?  I have a friend that a couple of voids just forward of the traveler.   He cut out the void area and sealed it laterally and mounted a couple of hatches (12"x12") in their place. 
Brilliant, as he now has more light, more ventilation and no voids!!  A thought.   

[Larry Robertie]

Hi Tony,

Remember me?  I bought the 34 next to you at Cape Ann!

Those were a couple of nasty nicks you had there.  I would suggest that you could use a mold to get the desired effect.  I was a member of the C27 group and, well... those boats tend to need a few repairs due to age.  Most of the folks that posted to that list had used a self releasing mold that is formed on the "good" non-skid.  Actually, this could be made out of material as simple as parafin.  The real trick is to get a good match on the color of the new surface.  Of course, in the end you will still have to sand a bit to get that "pyramid" look.

[tonywright]

Ron

A dramatic idea, that I will certainly think about. Three of the spots are fairly close together on the coachroof, but may be over the ice box/sink area. Isn't there some wiring/suspended bracket to worry about there?

I would like to start a separate thread on the topic of ventilation, since the MKII comes without much to speak of, and I want to improve that.

Larry: I see that you have renamed "Oasis" already. Hope you made the appropriate offerings to Neptune! Actually the more I looked, the more I found. I also found an area that had been repaired, but not very well, probably by the carve and sand method. I am hoping to do (or have done) a better job! It seems that voids are a fact of life, and more are likely to be discovered over time.

Still looking to hear if anyone has tried the Gibco method or similar?

Tony

[Stu Jackson]

Tony

Welcome as a new Message Board participant.  Also glad you joined the C34 IA, too.

The search feature on the upper left of the screen is an invaluable tool for this board.

Of course, the longer you lurk here, the more you'll remember what's been discussed, and some folks have spent time to just peruse the older messages, all 57 pages of 'em!!!

Anyway, I remembered the Mark II ventilation issue being discussed, and did a search on the word ventilation.  Here's one of the hits: http://c34.org/bbs/index.php?topic=2640.0

You could choose to start a new thread, but perhaps consider re-upping the older one.

Good luck on your repairs.