Jasmine ThomasThe deck of this Sparkman & Stephens–designed Gulfstream 30 was recently refinished with Tuff Coat, a premixed nonskid paint formulated specifically for this purpose.
With the bottom of my Sparkman & Stephens–designed Gulfstream 30 caulked tight and primed (see ″Reviving ADVENTURESS,″ WB No. 308, January/February 2026), my attention turned upward—to the decks. The old peach-colored paint was peeling and slick, and I wanted something more durable, safer underfoot, and comfortable for bare feet on summer days. I had spent all spring getting ADVENTURESS water- and sailing-ready. Mere weeks before her daunting first launching after 20 years out of the water, it was time to paint her deck.
She had not yet had a nonskid deck or coach roof, so I had to think about how to make this very necessary upgrade. I needed a deck and coach roof that had decent grip, but I didn’t want to compromise her look. I was looking for a product that would be good under bare feet and would still do such a beautiful 1959 mahogany-planked Sparkman & Stephens design justice.
I considered traditional enamel with sand mixed in, but this can cause skinned knees and feet. I also considered using what my dad uses on his Reliance 44 cruising cutter decks: the truck-bed liner Durabak. Though he’s been pretty happy with its longevity, feel, and appearance, he had horror stories of its application. It requires Xylene as the thinner, which is very toxic and needs to be continually added during application to keep the paint thin enough. He was painting on a moderate summer day in Maine, which caused the paint to dry faster than he could keep up. When I came across Pettit’s Tuff Coat, a water-based rubberized nonskid that relies on a two-part epoxy primer, I was curious: Could a modern, flexible coating made for workboats and docks, and originally formulated for waterparks, also suit the deck of a 1959 wooden sloop? I was eager to find out.
Before painting the deck, I needed to prep. The first step was to sand the entire deck and coach roof with 80- and 120-grit sandpaper. The preparation uncovered some surprises: There were several places where the fiberglass sheathing had cracked and let water in. Fortunately, she was so dry that it was a perfect time to address this with epoxy fillers to both re-adhere the sheathing to the deck and prohibit further cracking. I sanded down these spots with 60- and 80-grit paper, and moved up to 120-grit. The final step before applying the Tuff Coat nonskid paint was to prime. In order to adhere correctly, this water-based paint requires a special two-part primer. Part A is a resin that is a green-hued translucent liquid with the consistency of maple syrup and the odor of ammonia. Part B is a hardener that looks like thin, white almond milk. I hadn’t used a two-part primer before, and it was a true “trust the process” moment.
The instructions on the primer can were not quite dummy-proof. On my first attempt, I tried mixing the contents of the cans together in a separate container. As I progressed, the stuff didn’t seem to be working as it should; it dried in bubbled spider-web shapes when I tested it. I spoke with a sales rep for Pettit, who corrected my process by telling me that one whole can of either part A or B should be mixed with its counterpart directly in the other can. This is because there can be significant settling of solids, and the only way to ensure the contents are properly and thoroughly mixed is to combine them in their original cans. Further compounding my confusion was the fact that the directions referred to “4001” and “4002,” rather than Parts A and B.
The Tuff Coat kit: premixed nonskid paint, two cans of primer (and the box in which they were packed), and proprietary roller covers.
To adhere correctly, Tuff Coat, which is water-based, requires a proprietary two-part primer.
A proprietary textured foam roller cover is required to lay a proper pattern of nonskid. Author Jasmine Thomas says the product was “fun to apply, a bit like painting with half-frozen vanilla ice cream.”
Once I had the primer properly mixed, it was quite a fun experience to paint with the milky-white substance and see it dry clear; it brought back memories of using Mod-Podge glue in elementary school collages. Once the primer parts were mixed together—and especially once they were applied—there wasn’t much of a smell. I found that a brush worked best for applying the primer. It was also refreshing to use water for cleanup of wet primer drips, and to rinse out the brush with water at the end of the workday.
I applied two coats of the rubberized Tuff Coat nonskid in sandtone—although, because I was painting over an intense salmon, a third coat was required in places. I like having a smooth surface about an inch or two around the edges of handrails, and this presented a quandary because Tuff Coat is premixed with nonskid. Pettit has a smooth sandtone paint color in its EZPoxy line, but this is an oil-modified polyurethane rather than the water-based chemistry of Tuffcoat. The two colors are almost identical, but when they’re applied on top of one another, as I learned in a test patch, the difference is apparent. I found the following workaround: I first taped the edges of the area around the handrails that I wanted to be smooth. (I did not use Tuff Coat primer in this area.) After rolling on the first coat of nonskid, I peeled the tape while the paint was still wet, having found that if I left the tape on until the nonskid dried, the rubber bits made it difficult to peel a clean tape line. A few hours later, when the nonskid was dry to the touch, I taped off the handrail itself, and cut in, by hand, the smooth EZPoxy against the textured Tuff Coat line. This took only one coat for good coverage. For the next two coats of nonskid, I carefully rolled up to the crisp line, but didn’t cross it. I found that the colors were so close in shade that as long as the smooth sandtone had a clear defined line against the rough stippled nonskid sandtone, my eye could not tell the difference in color because of the texture difference.
A special textured foam roller is required to lay the pattern of the nonskid, and this tool is just as critical as the primer. The paint itself was quite fun to apply, a bit like painting with half-frozen vanilla ice cream. It didn’t require much thinning, but painting on a warm day would require thinning with only clean water. Cleanup is also with water, and must be done while the paint is wet; cleaning the paint from tools and surfaces, once it had dried, was not an easy task. It is important to pour small amounts into the roller tray, because it can be difficult to mix in the rubberized bits evenly once they are in the tray. It is much easier to mix it thoroughly while it is still in the can. Each stroke of the roller leaves a stippled surface that builds into a soft, grippy rubber finish. Once dry, it felt almost like cork: yielding underfoot, quiet, and comfortable.
The deck required two coats—and a third in some areas—to cover the intense salmon pink color of the previous finish.
I sailed on ADVENTURESS quite consistently throughout the summer and got praise at every dock for her paint job. The sandtone color was warm and professional-looking. The decks were easy to clean with a soft bristle brush and salt water. Dirt, mud, and anchor grime brushed right off. The deck never became scorchingly hot, as have some other nonskid surfaces I’ve stood on, and even when the decks were very wet the surface had good grip.
By the end of the season, the decks had very little visible wear from the sun, scrubbing, or walking. When it is time to repaint, there will be no need to sand it down again. ADVENTURESS’s decks are no longer slippery or tired; they’re soft, secure, and ready for the bare feet of new sailors. 
Jasmine Thomas is WoodenBoat’s editorial assistant.
For more information, visit www.pettitpaint.com/tuffcoat.