Still not finished but thought I would snap a few pics. I am very pleased with the results although if I did it again I would do a much better job due to "lessons learned". The sole is made up of 4" x 36" vinyl self stick maple planks that I bought at Lowes. I cut each in half to create the 2" wide planks. The holly part is actually GE premium silicon in almond color. I first did the bilge cover over a year ago to see how it would hold up. The plank stayed firm and the silicon worked perfectly. I need to replace the bilge cover metal trim lip. The PO put that one on and doesn't quite fit right. The substrate was gelcoated fiberglass that was under the original teak and holly plywood. The PO removed the plywood and just painted the fiberglass. I took a disc sander and sanded off the paint, cleaned it good with Dawn and wiped it down with acetone before applying the strips. Those tiles are very, very sticky so they stuck great.
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I would have had some nasty gaps. The trick with the silicone is to fill the gap just right so when you run the blade over it just leaves a thin film on the vinyl. I first made the mistake of running the blade over it too much trying to get it perfect. The silicone I used seemed to set up fast especially when it's 98 degrees out. Messing with it after the silicone starts to dry makes it lumpy. you can always touch up later after it dries. As far as dirt, the bilge cover was done over a year ago and the silicone did get dirty but cleaned up nice. The picture shows that the silicone on the cover is pretty much the same color as the new floor I just put in.