Repairing Cracks in Non-Skid

[Stephen Butler]

We have several cross-cockpit cracks in the non-skid, right in front of the hatch. The cracks are not deep (gel-coat), but are very noticeable. Rather than covering the area with a gate, we would like to do a repair.  We have done some research for a variety of solutions, and the one that most of the owners and yards here (south Florida) recommend is to open and then fill the cracks, and then roll on one or two coats of non-skid paint, resulting in a non-skid similar to the C387 (no pattern).  Our cockpit would then be different than the rest of our non-skid, which we would like to avoid if possible.  Our questions are the following: 1) Almost everyone says that using a latex or similar form to match the existing pattern is very diffficult, particularly for beginners (like us).  Has anyone used this approach?  2) Has anyone used the roll-on non-skid paint? How did it look and function? 3) Has anyone filled in thin cracks in the non-skid and then touched up the paint?  How did it look? Any thoughts/experience would be appreciated.

[Ken Juul]

See the attachment.  The hardest part will be matching the color

[Lance Jones]

Great article Ken. I would guess they'd have the Catalina patterns....

[Ken Juul]

This has been discussed a couple times in the past couple years.  Found the article searching the site, originally submitted by Commodore Michael.