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Hello, I just bought my first Boston whaler. It's a 1966 13' in about as bad a shape as you could find. There are many screw holes all over this little boat, including some big ones that were drilled through the transom. (2.5") I have done many hours of research in coming up with a game plan for the restoration process, and this site has been by far the best resource.
I plan on starting the restoration in about a month. When I got the boat there were two bench seats that were made out of 2" X 2"s and carpet that were screwed to the hull with 3" construction screws. What a discrace!!
Anyway, I have one question that I can't seam to find info on, and that is what to do about the texture on the deck. There are many screw holes in the deck, and I'm not sure how to go about fixing the holes without messing up the non-slip texture. Should one remove all the texture and start over again with a texturesurface coat? Is the texture in the gelcoat top or was it molded into the fiberglass itself?
Any one who has delt with this that couldgive some advice would be much appreciated.
Love the site!!

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I was faced with some small problems in one of my boats and Durabak two-part epoxy industrial coating worked great for me. My problems weren't major, just a few screw holes from previous console/seating attachments, but I needed a water-tight and tough coating for the inside---Durabak has worked out for me. Most whaler purists don't like the stuff but the boat will be around longer than most of us will!

-1967 Standard

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You may want do a search on hull repairs. There is a very good article about fiberglass repair on whalers. I am currently working on a 17' montauk. I have been using boat yard resin (polyester resin) to fill small screw holes. If the hole is big enough, I would cut up some fiberglass cloth/mat and mix in the resin. Fill the hole and cleanup with acetone. You will end up possibly grinding some of the repair away and coating with gelcoat, 400 grit wet sand and compound.

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I remember reading somewhere a post from a guy who was doing a small repair on the non-skid. He used something similar to a melted wax to take an impression of a good section of the non skid, then used that "mold" for lack of a better word over the repair area to give the wet thickened resin (or epoxy) the same texture as the rest of the floor before setting up. When it was dry, release was easy from the wax (can't remember what he used specifically). You could make a few molds and experiment on some plywood, then do the floor when you have it down consistently. The mold should fit into the existing non-skid pattern when you set it on the floor. I haven't come across any other solutions though but have seen a lot of people wondering about how to handle the non-skid. I think you're going to have to get creative, but it's worth saving as it looks great (original factory) and provides sure footing, especially in a small boat.

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I've been working on mine also - I think a gun stock checkering tool might work on the small areas. I have a couple of questions to ad to yours. (1)After the repair work is done, the pattern can't be sanded without grinding it off so how does one go about creating a bondable surface upon which to apply the gel-coat. (2) The you get into the problem of the low spots of the pattern filling in when you apply the gel-coat - how does one prevent this?

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Two thoughts come to mind (again, thinking creatively...). For the first question, what about a quick light sand blast or media blast equivalent to a light sanding, nothing heavy. Second question, what about spraying the gelcoat with the floor vertical (one of the major advantages of a 13' hull, flipability!) and/or inverting the boat during or after (not sure if you can spray "up" ). Just throwing some thoughts out, where there's a will there's a way!

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Good thoughts.
Maybe if there was someone who has restored a hull that could give a little advice on how they handled repainting or re-gelcoating the non-slip surface. You oviously can't sand it in between coats. I realize that I won't be able to make the hull look like factory new, but I would at least like it to look decent. I do like the thought of having an original surface, but sometimes you must compromise.
Thanks all for the coments, and suggestions so far!!

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Here are some pics of the mess. Sorry it was taken with my camera phone at dusk.

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one more

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Just came across this article, seems like Gibco would be worth contacting as they may have the flex mold pattern for the Whaler non-skid. It would look like a million bucks if you could get it to look like factory new! And if they don't have the Whaler pattern you could consider using one that's close and doing the whole floor over... Keep us posted, I'm very interested in this process! http://www.westsystem.com/ewmag/22/no...nskid.html