Paint & finish
Topside & Deck Refinishing
Awlgrip & Awlcraft in our own 70ft indoor booth
Full topside and deck refinishing in our own spray booth — 70 feet standard, inside a 120 by 90 foot building. Very few yards in the Pacific Northwest can put a boat that size under cover and spray it properly. Very few yards in the Pacific Northwest can hold that.
Climate-controlled booths
Spraying a boat outdoors is not an option in Washington, so the question is never indoors or out — it is what kind of indoors. Dust, temperature and humidity are what ruin a topside job, and a booth that controls all three is the difference between a finish that looks right when the boat leaves and one that still looks right in five years.
Awlgrip or Awlcraft
We spray both, and they are not interchangeable. Awlgrip is the harder, more chemically resistant finish and it holds gloss longer — the finish that stays looking new the longest. Awlcraft 2000 is more forgiving: it can be buffed and spot-repaired, which matters on a working boat that will inevitably meet a dock.
Which one suits you depends on how the boat is used and how you feel about the first scratch. We will give you a straight recommendation on which one suits the boat.
Decks and nonskid
All of it: re-moulded pattern nonskid taken from the original, nonskid additive in the coating, Treadmaster, and KiwiGrip. Deck work is where a refinish is judged, and it is where we spend the time to get the pattern and the grip right.
Brightwork and varnish
We do a lot of work in Awlwood, which outlasts traditional varnish by a wide margin and keeps its clarity rather than going amber and lifting. Traditional varnish where a customer wants it; Awlwood where they want to stop revarnishing every season.
Not every boat needs paint
If the gelcoat is sound, we can bring it back to a mirror without paint at all. We are a certified GlideCoat Pro applicator, and a proper cut, polish and ceramic treatment can bring a hull back to a mirror finish for a fraction of a respray. That is topside work — the bottom is a separate conversation, and most of our boats leave with Silic One below the waterline and GlideCoat above it.
Certified applicators
Certified Hempel, Sea Hawk and GlideCoat Pro applicator, working to written manufacturer standards.
One job, start to finish
Faired, primed, then sprayed
Indoors, under containment, with the boot stripe masked and the weather kept out of it. The finish that leaves the shop is the finish you still have in five years.
Faired and in primer
Sprayed and cut in
Full containment around the hull
No paint involved
This Rossiter was never repainted
That is the original gelcoat — cut, polished and sealed with GlideCoat Pro. And black is the least forgiving colour there is: every swirl, every sanding mark and every flat spot shows. If your gelcoat is still sound, this is what it can be brought back to, for a fraction of what a respray costs.
Original gelcoat, cut and sealed — not paint
Black shows everything, which is the point
Sound gelcoat gets coated. Chalked, crazed or previously painted topsides get sprayed. We will tell you which one your boat is, and either way it leaves looking better than it has in years.
Free for every customer
A complimentary 18-point inspection
An expert technician tests the boat’s systems and writes up every point as Excellent, Good, Monitor, Attention or Critical — a written report telling you what is sound, what to keep an eye on, and what has to be dealt with before she goes back in the water. Free with every job.
EXCELLENT
GOOD
MONITOR
ATTENTION
CRITICAL
Essential Shipyard 