This brings up a good "whatever happened to.." question.

When I lived in the Northwest in the 70's, the answer to every deck
problem like this was the same. Something called "Airbal?",
"Aerobol?" and burlap. It was an Elmer's glue like product normally
used to impregnate the cloth lagging on steam pipes. Many new wooden
boats also had these decks which looked very much like a traditional
canvas deck. The compound remained slightly rubbery and made an
almost perfect non-skid finish. It was said you could make any boat
watertight as long as the wood was not so rotten you broke through it.

I haven't heard a reference to this stuff in a couple of decades but
they are still lagging steam pipes so it probably could be recreated.

Does anybody remember this stuff?

--

Roger Long