I have been repairing sailboats for way over a quarter century now and have yet to ever make money painting anybody's deck. One fine old definition of insanity relates to  doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result. Although I am nuts about boat repair, I have decided to cease the insanity.

as of October 14, 2008 there will be

NO MORE INEXPENSIVE DECK PAINT JOBS!!!

None.  Zero. I am not going to be broke again for another year because I painted some other guy's deck. Nope!  Not gonna do it. I quit!!

If I am ever going to paint another deck, it will be a masterpiece for my own use or a masterpiece for which some appreciative customer gladly paid me a very very high price..

I can make beautiful decks out of old garbage. I have done it many times.

I have also done way too many embarrassing crappy paint jobs because the customer had no intention of paying for a masterpiece and I couldn't afford to do it right with the funds made available to me.

The problem??  Nobody is happy with a crappy job. I don't like doing it. You don't like owning it.

Let me be clear.  If all you are willing to spend on your J-24 deck is $5000. I cannot do a decent paint job.

You will think and tell your fiends, "I spent $5000 and that is a lot of money and this job sucks."  You will be correct on all counts.

However, a decent paintjob on a 30 year old J-24 will consume no less that $10,000 and if the deck has soft spots, fractures, and lots of old fittings holes, the price tag for a really nice paint job will exceed $20,000.

If you recognize and understand the reasons for all those expenses and are eager to have the really great paintjob, than by all means let's do it. At $20,000 for your deck I WILL NOT make as much money as I could by doing simple maintenance work like bottom jobs, hull side painting and repairs, but I do love creating pretty decks.

Please do not ask me to paint your deck unless you are ready to spend at least $1000 per foot based upon the length of your boat.

Translation:  It usually costs me out of my pocket  at least half that much for me to paint a deck and I need to make money in addition to my costs while I work.

Exception:
 

If you bring me a brand new boat that has never been sailed and the fittings and hardware have not yet been installed, I might be able to paint the deck for as little as $200 per overall boat length foot.

Yes!! You read correctly. ..I cannot paint a brand new Catalina 22 's deck for under $2000. Check what a paint job costs on your car.  Then consider the complications involved in deck painting.  The consider that you don't walk on your car...$20,000 to paint a Catalina 22 includes a lower hourly labor rate  than having your car painted at cheapo painting.

A proper paint job on an old Catalina 22 with crazed gelcoat, chips, soft spots on the deck, leaking windows, and all those little things all old boats always have will always cost more like $20,000

I am not kidding.

Quit asking me to do half assed jobs for les or telling me it is OK with you if I do a half assed job.

I won't do it.

No more. 

Every single deck paint job that has ever been accomplished in my shop has been followed by late house payments, delinquent credit card payments, late fees for every other bill and I simply cannot continue to live like this.

If you bring me a boat expecting to have me paint the deck or ask me to paint the deck on your boat  or ask for an estimate for a deck paint job...

I will not even be polite.

Got it??

 NO more decks!!

If you don't like that, open your own deck painting business, bring me a stack of business cards and I will send all those who ask about deck painting  to see you.

Hell, I will bring the boats to you and pick them up when they are done.

1. I would have a finite amount of loss to cover as I KNOW how much it takes to haul and launch most any sailboat.

2. I would not have to provide warranty coverage.

After nearly 30  years of attempting to paint sailboat decks, a deck upon which I only lost the cost of a haul and launch would be my single most profitable deck paint job.

It would replace the current record best most profitable deck paint job which I think is about a $3000 loss on a $6000 Ensign deck paintjob upon which the owner chipped in the other $3000.

OK..I'm done....I feel better now.

and by the way...I do have a nifty little trick for repainting one particular sort of non skid.  If you have non skid in pretty darned wonderful condition except for the fact it looks like there are nasty brush marks in the gelcoat, it can be fixed up on the cheap. The oldest of my quickie non-skid repaints on a J-22 is now about 10 years old and still hanging in there.

As of 2008 the price range looks like $1200 for a J-30 and $750 for a J-22. remember All we are doing is CLEANING, TAPING, and PAINTING...then cleaning up our mess and taking money from you as you smile and look at the wonderful improvement.

Conditions: 

1. I must agree yours is in the right condition for this makeover.

2. I won't even consider doing it unless you go for a walk with me and we look together at some of the boats we have already done.

The genesis of the system was based upon spilled paint never coming off old non-skid. It involves using lots of flattening agent in a very very thin urethane paint and doing a "controlled spill."