anything is possible....however, until you remove the paint you don't really know what you are dealing with.....worst case you just end-up repainting the deck.

removing paint is typically relatively easy with sanding becuase paint itself is not particularly hard or resistent to most abrasives used in sandpaper.   the deck, if it is arched, can be a bit challenging, but i find if you break it down into small sections and just do a section at a time, you can get there pretty easyily over a couple days.   a vacume attached sander that pulls the dust away is also very useful.   

once you have the paint off or most of the paint off, you will then be able to assess the condition of any epoxy, glass and the wood underlay.   and if that is in good shape (at least the wood), then further work removing glass or epoxy is labor intensive but pretty easy.

if the wood is in bad condition cosmetically, you dont have a lot of options other than repaint the deck or attempt to cut the old deck off and put on a new one (expensive and difficult).  

if you have not bought the boat yet, i would inspect the boat carefully from the inside to see if you can get a sense of the shape of the wood.is in.  if it is stained, black etc indicating water intrusion....you might want to pause.

i hope this was helpful.

h

   Yes, very helpful and validating, thank you!  much of what I am missing is experience and confidence, so hearing from others helps, and your details are great.  Checking the interior wood makes sense.  Thanks for the advice!

Does anyone know if there is a good reason why a deck would be painted, other than cosmetic problems?  Does the paint on the deck (when not used on the hull) have advantages unique to it being on the deck?

Thanks again!

hi lou, 

my general experience is that painting the deck of a clc kayak is typically to address some underlying cosmetic problem in the deck wood.  not in all cases, but just based on 20+ years building kayaks and meeting people who built kayaks, most of the time it's becuase there was some cosmetic issue that did not think showed well if they left the deck clear/varnished.

typical would be that they had some staining due to water intrusion (can often be detected by inspecting the wood from the inside), had a physical accident that cracked the deck and wanted to make the repair cosmetically appealing (sometimes detectable from inside as well) or when they sanded the deck they accidently sanded through the outer veneer of the mahogony plywood...and that can look pretty bad even though structurally it's not a big deal.

the important thing is to confirm the boat is structurally sound and dry and that the wood core of the boat is staying dry and is waterproofed with epoxy.

fwiw, there are a number of very appealing paint schemes if you end up with a boat that is sound but a varnsihed deck does not work.  you can look at all the high-end fibreglass kayaks for ideas. (white hull, colored deck, for example...or colored hull as per a typical clc paint scheme with a wood colored/light .brownish deck).  i actually was detailing out a project that i was looking to paint the deck...so i would not dismiss the idea of all painted if that is what it comes to.

h

, 

   That does make sense, thanks!