Marine Capet Seating Installed
After many voyages I was not completely happy with the non slip paint finish on the seats tops of my navigator. It was ruff on the back-side and comfort was only obtain by using some type of cushion. Also the epoxy paint would sometimes chip or scrap off, especially where the spars would lay during travel and during rigging. After seeing what Barrett did with her Nav's I considered laying hardwood over the 6mm ply seat tops, but could not justify the additional 60kg that hardwood seats would add the the overall weight of the boat. As I became more dissatisfied with the paint finish I happened to go crabbing with a friend in his tinny. Low and behold he had marine carpet throughout his boat, and I thought 'how good is this stuff. Over the next few days I had purchased the best Marine carpet that I could find (UV stabilized) and installed the stuff. This stuff is tuff, comfortable and you get no sense of slipping when you stand on it. An absolute bargin, the cost including contact cement and a new scrap knife was $155, money well spent I say. I'll take a few pictures later so all can see how good this stuff looks, you'll have to take my word regarding the increased comfort, and secure feeling under foot. Don't know why I didn't think of it before, or why its never come up in any of the forums.