Painting fake planking

[Capt. Mike]

We are refurbishing our Ta Chaio (CT42) sailboat. I want to remove the gelcoat and paint the sides with awlgrip or a similar 2 part coating, but I don’t know how to deal with the fake planking. The hull is fiberglass, but the manufacturer made it look like wooden planking by making grooves about 8 inches apart that parallel the water line. How can I remove the gelcoat, prepare the surface and then paint while keeping the planking look intact? Should I just grind down enough to eliminate the grooves and make it simple?

Most of the new paint jobs I see are Awlgrip or something similar, but I'm a little put off by its extremely high gloss. I guess I could add a reducer, but would something like polyurethane paint be acceptable?

[fiberglass jack]

you do not have to remove the gelcoat all you have to do is sand with 120 this should remove the gloss and wax then wash it down with a dewaxer,then prime the hull u should still have the plank lines your ready for awlgrip. awlgrip does have a high gloss but one thing with awlgrip is that if it is wet sanded and polished it will never come back to the origanal gloss so u could sand and buff to a lower gloss finsh