Its been a long time since our last entry, but winter living is slow here in central Florida.   It rains a lot more here than we expected so deck painting is going slow, but we are making some progress.   We are repainting the deck and cabin top non-skid areas with Durabak-18 (the “18” denotes added UV protection).  Some of the non-skid was still in good shape but most of it, especially the decks, were definitely showing their 30 years of wear.   And while we are happy with the outcome, it is a lot of work and is going slowly.  

We divided up the deck and cabin top into ten sections.  We have to make sure we have somewhere to stand or kneel while we paint and that we don’t paint ourselves into a corner.  The general prep and painting procedure is the same for each area.


First, we tape around the non-skid area to protect the surrounding smooth gelcoat.  The smooth gelcoat needs painting too, but that is not this year’s project!  Then we get out the sander with 60 grit paper and go to work.  We don’t have to sand off all the old non-skid but we do have to knock down the surface to get good adhesion with the new paint.  There are a few spots that have to be hand sanded, but the sander works in most places.  After sanding, we pressure wash the area to remove any remaining sanding dust.   The basket on the sander catches a lot of the dust, but needless to say, we are careful not to do this part of the project on days our neighbors are sitting in their cockpit, painting or varnishing.  And we can’t do this when it is raining; luckily it doesn’t take long to sand.

Then we pull the tape up and let the area dry.  Durabak is a multi-industry product, used for marine applications and for other things, like pickup beds and concrete floors.  It is strong and sticks well if the surface is prepared properly.  These are things we like; however, due to how strong it is, you cannot wait to pull the tape until after the Durabak is dry, like you would with most paints.  If you waited until the Durabak is dry to pull the tape, you would have to cut out the tape with an x-acto knife as it would be one with the paint.

And the Durabak dries quickly.  On the one hand, this lets us get two coats of Durabak on a day; however, it also means the tape has to be pulled quickly so we can’t paint too large of an area at a time. 


So we have worked out a system -- first we tape off the area with 2” blue painter’s tape.  For straight edges, this is fairly simple.  Unfortunately, the boat seems to have very few straight edges.

To get a crisp clean edge, we lay down the tape and then trim the curve with an x-acto knife.  The Taiwanese originally put in lots of curves, making for a nice looking deck but also making for a time-consuming process for the repainting.

The cabin top area around the deck organizers, traveler, sea hood and dorade boxes had the most curved areas.  Concave curves are easier to trim than convex curves, but both take time.

After the entire area is taped with blue painter’s tape, we tape over that with 1” masking tape.  The masking tape is easier to put over the blue tape than more blue tape as you can see the first layer through it.  All the same care needs to be taken with applying the masking tape as with the blue tape.  We are also careful to leave folded under pull tabs at intervals so we can pull the tape up as we go.  And all this can only be done one day ahead of painting.

Right before we start painting, we have to clean the surface with Xylene to ensure all the oils and dusts are off.  This can get quite stinky if there isn’t at least a small breeze.  Then the painting can start.   Painting days basically go like this:  10 am - dew has dried and we clean the area with Xylene; 10:30 am - apply coat of primer; noon - apply first coat of Durabak; 3 pm - apply second coat of Durabak; 4 pm - clean up; 6 pm - heat up leftovers and collapse into bed, exhausted and wishing we never started this project.

To ensure an even application of the non-skid particles, Durabak must be applied with a special stipple roller.  It is available in 4” and 9” lengths, but we have found the 4” works for our boat quite well.  On the cabin top around the deck organizers, we cut a 4” roller into two 2” rollers for the tight areas and used a 3” roller handle.  For areas we cannot get to with a roller, we use disposable chip brushes and “dab” on the Durabak; brushing does not work.

The Taiwanese yard created the original non-skid on La Vita by adding sand to paint.  To make the Durabak non-skid product, ground-up tires are mixed into the paint.  This is a little less abrasive on the feet and knees than the sand-in-the-paint approach but requires that as we use Durabak, we have to keep it mixed well as the tire particles tend to settle to the bottom.  You cannot shake Durabak to mix it as it is packed under pressure and shaking has been known to blow off the lid, creating a huge mess.   So it has to be mixed by stirring and we use a paint mixer that attaches to a drill.  It is most cost effective to buy Durabak in gallons, although it is sold in quarts also, but the gallon cans are unwieldy on the deck when we are working.  So we get four quart cans from the hardware store and separate the gallon into these smaller cans. 

Transferring the paint is quite messy so we tape the quart can tops before starting.  This lets us seal the cans after the paint is transferred without lots of cleanup.  Note to dinner guests:  This is a special soup ladle that we got for this project and we DO NOT just clean it up and use it for dinner later!

The Metcoat primer can be applied by brush.  It dries quickly and we don’t have to pull any tape between it and the first coat of Durabak.   In the hour it takes the primer to dry, we mix the Durabak and get ready to paint.  We also mix the Durabek in the can each time we add more to the paint tray to keep the particles in solution.

The side deck has turned out to be a little harder than the cabin top; Drew had to pull the tape as he works backwards toward the bow of the boat.  If he paints too far before pulling the tape, he has to do yoga-like stretches over wet paint to reach the tape to pull it up. 


To the right is what the side deck looked like after a coat of primer and one coat of Durabak was applied.

Durabak dries fairly quickly so we able to apply the second coat after a couple of hours.  On the side deck, we waited a little longer as Drew had to kneel on the first coat as he applied the second, so it needed to be good and dry.

After the second coat of Durabak, and the second layer of tape is pulled, the final product looks good!   Now we let that area thoroughly dry over a period of several days before we spend a lot of time walking on it.   After we get the entire port side coated and thoroughly dried, we will turn La Vita around in the slip and do the starboard side deck, while we board from port.  There is a method to this madness, but it is taking a lot more time than we thought!

The bow of the boat is getting more and more crowded as we move stuff forward so we can work our way aft.  Eventually we will have to do something about this as it will be time to paint those areas.

So this is how we have been spending our winter in Cocoa, but it hasn’t been all work and no play.  We had some visitors -- Wayne and Betsy came by for lunch with us on their way back to Pennsylvania and Lorraine and Ann flew in for a few days to keep us company. 

We also took time to drive south to Rivera Beach for the day.  We had our life raft repacked and it was ready to be picked up (see next blog posting for description of that little endeavor) and were able to catch up with our friends Dave and Trish at the Tiki Bar in Rivera Beach.  They were anchored nearby in Lake Worth on their way to Marathon.  We delivered a new Rocna anchor to them (it arrived at West Marine late, after they had left to go south) and enjoyed some wine at the Tiki Bar before they headed back out to the boat and we drove north.

We are spending this week in Orlando dog-sitting and house-sitting while Scott and Tara are out of town but will get busy back on La Vita next week.  Of course it is forecast to rain all week so we get a break from painting (too bad!!) but we will hopefully finish the new bow roller for our new 73 lb. Rocna and start repairing some damage we found that was caused by a leaky inner-forestay. 


It’s always something on a boat, but we wouldn’t want to live any other way!