I’m waiting on a local marine detailing and carpet installer to come by and measure my 1982 Mako 20B for a Sea Dek install on the forward deck. The forward locker holds my traditional Dansforth anchor and chain, and the last couple of seasons have resulted in some chips and dings to the gel coat when the anchor was dropped on the deck up front. I’m having the dings repaired and then the Sea Dek will eliminate that occurrence after it’s installed. I’m also looking forward to having a cushioned deck surface for my old knees when I have to get down and root around in the anchor locker. Sea Dek will customize the color, and even offer lettering, logo, or in my case an embossed fish ruler. What I found curious is that this installer says she gets virtually zero business from trailer boats vs. the big boys. Sea Dek is widely used on small boats in Fla., but not here. Thoughts?
Price. That stuff is expensive. Watch out for shipping. I ordered a standard piece about 3’x 1.5’ and paid a lot for it. When they charged me, the shipping was almost as much as the piece. I figured, well they must have put it in a flat box to keep it from being rolled. Wrong, it was rolled in a tiny box that weighed like 9 ounces and they charged me about 15 times what it should have been for shipping. I will never buy another piece of Sea Dek anything.
Another would be Marine Mat. Most if not all of these guys are buying the same Marine Grade UV resistant EVA foam. You are essentially paying for the labor to make the patterns and cnc time. Digitized patterns still have to be manipulated on a pc for a legit nested cad file. SeaDek does have some options like laser etching that most of the other competitors have not dialed in yet.
“If you had to tell someone how good you are, then you probably aren’t that good”
I have hydro turf under the gunwales of my flats boat. Boat originally had carpet there but it kept getting moldy so I replaced. I have been very pleased with it and it has held up well despite the fact it is in almost continuous sun. I have considered putting it down on my Jon boat floor but have not pulled the trigger on that just yet because it too would be in full sun, but on a horizontal surface so just not sure how it would do long term. I like to seaDek a lot I first saw it installed on an old mako restoration about eight years ago and it looked really sharp. Now I seeing it almost everywhere in some form. They make a nice product however it is very costly and for my experience their customer service is not the best. I had requested some information from them several years ago and it took them a couple of weeks just to get back to me after repeated phone calls. I recently inquired about bolster pads via email in response was quicker however I specifically told them I only wanted pads for the cockpit and they priced me for my entire boat. The quote was almost $500 off, had I not read it closely I would have totally dismissed the idea. By the way bolster pads just for the cockpit were just under $600, still considering it but hard to stomach! I came very close to purchasing one of their helm pads before a long trip, but was able to locate a company on the line called Pacific mats? That were significantly cheaper. I’ve had that helm pad for almost a year now and it has held up well.