Parker 2830 Extended cabin updates:

[Jersey Jim]

Beautiful boat! I really love the overhead shaded slip.

 

[sydngoose]

Beautiful boat! I really love the overhead shaded slip.

Thanks, Jim.

Initially, I was going to keep her at the Florida Yacht Club in an open UN-covered slip for $175/ month.

But, after spending $5,500 on gel coat repair and refinishing, I thought the money each month to keep her covered was well worth the investment.

So, my slip (with electricity) is $360 / month. OUCH! But, it's nice to go to the marina (1 mile from my home) and just undo 6 dock lines and go.. Then, wash her down at the end of the day…and she stays super clean at Sadler Point Marina away from the sun and wind.

Ok, standby for more updates: they are slow going at this point with 2 children under 3 years old and a third coming in 18 days…
my free time is dwindling…

oh yeah, and I just bought another Parker: an 18' center console as a project for the Winter. Standby as I'll be starting a new project thread on that one as well…. Glutton for punishment..it's an addiction.

 

[camron]

Cool lets see that 18 you just got.

 

[kidfreediver]

Okay your either over doing it or my wife needs to talk to your wife and disgust how you can get so much free time with kids. I haven't worked on the boat in months and my youngest child just turned one. Totally jealous!!!!!

 

[sydngoose]

Cool lets see that 18 you just got.

I should have waited 24 hours to post that note.. I ended up balking and walking from that project hull. It was the wrong timing to get into a stringer/ transom/ deck/ fuel cell complete rebuild…

 

[sydngoose]

Okay your either over doing it or my wife needs to talk to your wife and disgust how you can get so much free time with kids. I haven't worked on the boat in months and my youngest child just turned one. Totally jealous!!!!!

My wife is amazing. She is a huge advocate of our boating/ fishing lifestyle. It's a game changer, kidfreediver, when your baby goes to preschool….it opens up a lot more time. Also, by the sounds of your lifestyle, you may have to change your username to
Kid-in-towdiver.

I was able to spend a few hours on the 2830 yesterday tackling a couple of projects. I installed 30 feet of blue LED under gunnel lights that came out great. I also changed out the two lateral spreader lights from halogen to LED and started on my nonskid project.







from this:



To this:







For the nonskid, I am redoing the cabin floor and the cockpit at least…I may do the washboards, but we'll see. I started with a test hatch. This is a hatch cover from inside the cabin. I used Parker waxed gelcoat with Rustoleum nonskid grip additive and MEKP hardener. I taped and prepped the hatch cover. Sanded with 120, acetone washed it, then rolled the gelcoat/ nonskid additive w/ a 3/8 inch nap roller. I immediately removed the prep tape, and the results are AMAZING. I am super excited to finish this nonskid project as I feel it will make the cockpit pop and add that level of sure footed'ness. The amount of texture turned out great! I simply add the nonskid TO the gelcoat, mixed it up with hardener and rolled the entire product to the hatch cover. I will post more pics of the nonskid project as it develops this week.

 

[shawnee83]

Once again some very cool projects Sydngoose. Love the blue LED's and obvious good call on the spreader light upgrade. Of even more personal interest to me is the deck non skid project. My deck non skid is worn out to the point of not being able to even clean it well and I also have a few stress cracks in it. Was wanting to do mine over this winter and maybe grind out and fill the cracks just to be sure they don't reappear. Looking forward to seeing the rest of yours and hope you can assist me when I get to mine.

 

[sydngoose]

Shawnee- I was pleasantly surprised w the professional results of the rolled gelcoat w nonskid additive.

It took me 10 min to prep that hatch, 2 minutes to mix the gelcoat and 1 minute to roll the gelcoat. I am eager to finish the gelcoat nonskid project as I believe it will be so functional and really pretty up the cockpit.

Standby as I get more time to work on her this week.

 

[kidfreediver]

I was thinking of using the kiwi grip on mine next nonskid project I think it will make her pop with a gray colored nonskid

 

[sydngoose]

I was thinking of using the kiwi grip on mine next nonskid project I think it will make her pop with a gray colored nonskid

I have used kiwi grip on four different boats over the last six years.

I liked the product -it's easy to lay down. However I can never get the texture homogenized.

Also I found that it wears fairly quickly. The last boat I use kiwi grip was a 1986 Willie Roberts flat boat about one year ago.

I did it in industrial grey... It looked great. But there is a reason why I'm not using kiwigrip on this boat or probably ever again.

Here is the Willie Roberts flat boat I did with gray kiwigrip nonskid deck.

 

[camron]

I have used quick grip on a carolina skiff i had it held up ok for a couple years then started wearing out.

 

[sydngoose]

Finished the gelcoat nonskid renew inside the cabin this morning. It came out great, but I'm going to have to thin it for the cockpit. Any thoughts of what to thin it with?

I was told duratec , but dang that stuff is expensive! What about flotrol or acetone, would that work?
Reason I believe I'll have to thin it is I really had to push this gelcoat around to make it smooth and cover well...
The cockpit has so much surface area to cover, I'll need to thin it to make it flow well.







I had a little extra time this morning, so I removed the rocket launcher and brought it home to clean it up. It was just tarnished.
I used "aqua buff 2000" and a lambs wool pad on a DEWALT rotary polisher to initially remove the stains and blemishes, then I polished it and protected the metal w Alumiguard.

Time to order more gelcoat to finish the nonskid project... Again, suggestions on what agent to thin it with?

 

[shawnee83]

Once again Sydngoose, nice work! Your fast too. Did you also get the floor in the birth as well? Launchers polished up nicely as well. I have those gold covered tubes on mine that I wouldn't mind taking the gold off of and just have aluminum instead. Think they could be buffed with something that would do that?

 

[sydngoose]

Back at the boat now installing rocket launcher again- the gold did come off about 85%... It's a 100% improvement... But still not perfect... Looks great from 4 ft away (from the cockpit perspective)...
Yes, I think you should give it a try, Shawnee. Certainly it couldn't hurt.

No I still have to do the steps into the berth and the berth floor...

 

[shawnee83]

Didn't know yours had the gold too. I guess you feel the same way about getting it off then. I'm going to give it a shot this winter. I noticed in your pic that your all round light on top was the old one still and seeing how you don't mess around with imorovement I can see you replacing that and your running lights eventualy? If that is the case I thought that I would share with you what I replaced mine with. I've been happy with them so far and being LED obviously way less power draw and better reliability when you hit the switch. I like the small indicators on the Nav's as it makes it easy to see from the house when they are on.
http://www.attwoodmarine.com/store/product/7812
http://www.attwoodmarine.com/store/product/3530

 

[sydngoose]

I like it buddy. Yup, I'll add it to the whiteboard. Thanks for the heads up!

 

[kidfreediver]

Finished the gelcoat nonskid renew inside the cabin this morning. It came out great, but I'm going to have to thin it for the cockpit. Any thoughts of what to thin it with?

I was told duratec , but dang that stuff is expensive! What about flotrol or acetone, would that work?
Reason I believe I'll have to thin it is I really had to push this gelcoat around to make it smooth and cover well...
The cockpit has so much surface area to cover, I'll need to thin it to make it flow well.







I had a little extra time this morning, so I removed the rocket launcher and brought it home to clean it up. It was just tarnished.
I used "aqua buff 2000" and a lambs wool pad on a DEWALT rotary polisher to initially remove the stains and blemishes, then I polished it and protected the metal w Alumiguard.

Time to order more gelcoat to finish the nonskid project... Again, suggestions on what agent to thin it with?

Acetone works well with the gelcoat. Nice heads up on the kiwigrip. Looks like adding some gray pigment to the gel coat will be nice.

Here my nonskid I did on the top of pilot house with gelcoat. Mixed with beige pigment to match the Parker gelcoat.

 

[sydngoose]

What, you didn't think I had a 2830 whiteboard? Added LED nav lights to the list

 

[sydngoose]

KFDiver: that cabin top looks super! A couple questions:
A.) what ratio would you consider for acetone to gelcoat? 5-10%?
B.) what did you use for a nonskid additive to the gelcoat? Or is that just the naps' finish w peaks and valleys? I like it. 1 coat or 2?

 

[shawnee83]

What, you didn't think I had a 2830 whiteboard? Added LED nav lights to the list

Holly Cow!! You weren't kidding. I like it. That's some list.