I couldn’t understand why anyone would put carpet on yacht stairs. Trish, a safety manager for more than 20 years, had a pretty good answer: grip. That was our friendly disagreement over the carpet leading up to Empire’s pilothouse. I wanted it gone. She wanted to make sure we respected why it was there.
We pulled it out anyway. But Trish’s point stuck with the project, and we brought back the original wood without giving up the traction those stairs need.
A busy route to the best view
The pilothouse is my second-favorite room on Empire, our 74-foot Hatteras. Whenever we’re underway with people aboard, everyone migrates up there. It has the best view on the boat, which makes those stairs one of the busiest spots we have.
After 30 years, the stairs and the area around them were worn, and old carpet covered the steps. My objection went beyond looks. People head up there wet. Spray and salt water follow them, and carpet holds onto all of it.
So replacing the carpet on these boat stairs was a practical project, not just a cosmetic one. We wanted the original wood back, with a finish and footing that could handle real traffic.
Bringing back the wood
Zach did the work. He helps us with detailed projects and is extremely detail-oriented, and this job showed it.
With the carpet gone, the original wood was refinished. We went high-gloss on the stairs and built up a lot of layers of varnish to stand up to the foot traffic. These steps get used, so the finish had to do more than look good.
The result blew our minds. There’s something especially satisfying about uncovering wood that was part of the boat all along instead of keeping it hidden.
The stairs are done. The lights still need to go back in before we call the whole area finished.
The grip stayed in the plan
Trish was right about the carpet’s purpose. For all my complaints about what it held, it gave you grip.
So clear grip strips went on every tread to keep the stairs as safe as they were with carpet. The restored wood stays visible, and the traction stays part of the job.
If you’re refinishing yacht stairs, give the finish and the footing their own attention. The varnish protects the wood. The grip strips protect the people walking on it. Stairs that see this much traffic need both.
I got the wood stairs I wanted, and Trish’s safety point stayed put. I’ll take that outcome.
The mistake nobody warns you about
The new finish created another problem: all the old wood next to it.
Once one area looks fresh and shiny, the surrounding wood gets a lot harder to live with. Your eyes start making comparisons that were easy to ignore before.
Now Zach, Trish and I are going to refinish the rest of the wood aboard Empire. We’ll probably go less glossy than the stairs. We love how they turned out, but the rest of the boat can take a different sheen.
I wanted the carpet gone. Apparently, that was the opening move in a much bigger wood project.
One more pilothouse project before move-in
Starlink has been sitting in the pilothouse for about a year, waiting to be mounted up top. Getting it installed is a hard requirement before we move aboard.
Our Verizon hotspot is fine for occasional work on the boat. Living aboard is different: streaming, plus the remote work Trish and I both do. The hotspot won’t cut it for that.
Watch the stair project in Restoring Our Vintage Yacht’s 30-Year-Old Woodwork on our Anchors to Axles YouTube channel, and sign up for the newsletter below to follow along as we get Empire ready to move aboard.
