Re: No opinions? C'mon people!
Being the financially challenged person I am, I have been considering the idea of just painting the sheets of plywood and throw sand on the top side to keep it from being to slippery.
I did industrial painting for almost 40 years and used sand and industrial enamel to produce a durable, long lasting, non-skid surface on a lot of concrete, metal and wood floors. It worked like a charm and I can't see why it wouldn't work on a boat deck as well.
Here's the procedure I always used:
Roll or brush on a heavy coat of oil based alkyd enamel. This should be a good quality paint. Preferably one designed for industrial applications or for use on floors.
While the enamel is still wet, broadcast a layer of fairly coarse sandblasting sand (the kind used for blasting structural steel on bridges and buildings) on top of the paint. Just toss it on there by the handsfull Or, better yet, if you can find it in your area, use white silica sand, . Again, it should be fairly coarse sand.
When the paint is thoroughly dry, remove all the loose, excess, sand and apply another coat of the same paint.
For greater durability repeat the process.
Note: the paint I am talking about here is regular old slow drying enamel, the kind that uses ordinary mineral spirits for thinner and clean up. You need for the paint to be good and wet when you broadcast the sand onto it.
BTW, I've never had any luck trying to mix sand with paint and apply it that way. The couple of times I tried that, I ended up with a first class mess. Had to scrape it off and start over.
