For those with any interest, here's what I've determined about the
Flexiteek decking alternative:

I met with the Vice President of Operations at our marina who is an
authorized installer of Flexiteek. He had already measured the cockpit
area on my boat and had a preliminary cost estimate. This stuff is not
cheap, so in my mind it had to really impress me to go forward with this
project.

He had a pile of strip samples on a table and I have to admit, I was not
impressed at first. What I was holding was a thin, rubber feeling strip
of PVC of a strange orange color with grooved ridges along it's length.
It didn't look like teak at all. Then, I realized I was holding it
upside down and was looking at the surface that is applied to the deck.

The other side had a realistic looking teak appearance with one edge
finished to look like a black inlay. The artificial teak even had little
slivers of material that looks like rough cut wood before it is sanded.
But, I still was not convinced based on looking at the strip and a
larger sample that he had on the floor of his office. He suggested that
we go look at a Hatteras motor yacht that they had installed Flexiteek
on a couple of years ago.

Here I became convinced. A large percentage of the Hatteras exterior
decking had the Flexiteek installed and it looked terrific. It became
obvious that technique and design of the installation is as important as
the material itself and they had done a good job of laying out the
strips in different widths plus making boarders around hatches and
angles of the fiberglass deck.

I was told the stuff is basically maintenance free. The manufacturer
recommends just washing it with boat soap. Any damage that occurs from a
heavy impact or dragging an anchor or something across it is repaired by
lightly sanding with fine sandpaper. I was told that it is more durable
and scratch resistant than real teak.

Walking on it yields a subtle cushiony feel - not soft, but not like a
hard fiberglass deck. It is much more skid resistant than the non skid
finish of my cockpit and becomes more skid resistant when it gets wet I
was told.

By this time I was impressed and have decided to have it applied to my
boat cockpit area and a section of the cockpit gunnels, just for an
accent effect.

BTW, I asked about cork decking and Gould was right on. Cork decking has
traditionally been used on some very high end boats, particularly
trawlers, but, according to the VP of Operations (who, btw, is a boat
designer and builder and is a very experienced marine architect) is not
as resistant to damage, is more expensive and is falling out of favor to
the synthetic engineered materials such as Flexiteek. According to him
boat manufacturers such as Hinkley are now offering Flexiteek installed
at the factory. Sell job? Maybe, but the Flexiteek looks good to me. It
is obvious that the experience and design creativity of the installer is
a critical component of a good looking installation as well.


Eisboch