Maincabin Companionway Restoration (cont)

In total, it took about 50 hours to rebuild the hatch and companionway; not counting trips to the hardware store. I've very satisfied with the results of this project. The hatch area has been an eyesore. It is now clean and watertight. The grab rail I added to the hatch looks nice and provides a solid handhold. Although I was pleased that the deck rot proved to be limited, I was surprised at how time consuming and difficult this project was. The use of silicon sealant made it very difficult to disassemble the hatch. Each screw was glued in place with the stuff and many of the screw heads were filled with varnish. I'm not happy with the hasp hole in the aft hatch trim. I believe this will leak. I should have replaced the trim piece and mounted the hasp on the top of the hatch somehow. I'm still evaluating this piece. I may remove and replace it. I tried to match the existing finish, but the finish came out lighter in color than the unrestored part of the bulkhead near the fire extinguisher. I'll have to strip and refinish that area too. I was hoping for a close match. I am also unhappy with the nonskid paint. It is my experience that a painted deck can be very slippery even if nonskid compound is used. This paint has too much nonskid however. I applied a topcoat without nonskid, but this seems to have filled in the nonskid pattern. It was fortunate that I tested the nonskid surface on a small area before coating the entire deck. This will give me a chance to experiment. Once I get it right, I'll do the whole deck area. Unfortunately, the now restored companionway highlights the shabby looking cabin sole and remaining interior woodwork. I'll have to refinish the cabin sole, but that's another project.