[url]http://www.pbase.com/mainecruising/buffing__waxing[/url]

Rich,

I know this will raise eybrows with those that are wax/polish advocates but here goes...

I have an 84 Mk I that had somewhat of a shine on the hull. When I had her out of the water for a survey and bottom paint I tried the polish and wax routine. I tried several different products and got a fair shine to the hull after a lot of work and persperation.

I remembered being at the boat show in Oakland a year prior and overheard a boat owner talking to someone about a product he'd used that brought the shine back to his boat. I looked for he booth but never found it.

The product was Poli Glow. I don't want to bore you with details but the product requires a two step process. The first is cleaning the hull from all of the minor scratches and stains. Then you apply the polish with an applicator similar to a chamois. You then brush he liquid on starting at one end of the boat and heading towards the other. The first application looks awful. The second coat you start to see something that appears to be a shine. By the third coat you can see you face. The whole process took me about 3 to 4 hours from start, cleaning the hull, to a finished shine with a lot less effort than I had put into the waxing process.

I applied the product two years ago and my hull still shines like the day I put it on.

Again I understand those of you out there that stand by the wax on wax off
theory. I suggest you take a look at the product and see what you think?

I'd send you some photos but I've been stranded in a small town in Italy near Venice for several days after completing a 10 day cruise around Italy. I do have the before and after photos that I can post if I ever get back to the US???

Chris

Here's the commentary to go along with Stu's link to the pix. I just went thru this process (not an insignificant amount of work), and the results are amazing. Even without the wax applied, the hull glistens!!

[URL]http://www.sailnet.com/forums/gear-maintenance/52772-tips-compound-polis...

My dad uses Poli-glow on his boat, and it looks very good with only a bit of upkeep work.

I am in serious need of a polish of some sort on my 36. She has not had any love on the topsides in at least 10 years I would say. However, my experience of that job is that if you can pay someone $500 to do it, you are probably ahead of the game. It will take you days to do on your own, it won't look as good as a pro, and your shoulders will ache for 2 weeks.

[QUOTE=Nimue;4968]My dad uses Poli-glow on his boat, and it looks very good with only a bit of upkeep work.

I am in serious need of a polish of some sort on my 36. She has not had any love on the topsides in at least 10 years I would say. However, my experience of that job is that if you can pay someone $500 to do it, you are probably ahead of the game. It will take you days to do on your own, it won't look as good as a pro, and your shoulders will ache for 2 weeks.[/QUOTE]

Could not agree more. Most jobs I am happy to tackle myself, but there are some that really are worth the price. IMHO, this is one of them. The thing to keep in mind when using a power buffer is that it is exceptionally easy to burn the gel coat, and once that happens, there is no going back. The compound and wax job is more art than science, and getting a feel for how much is too much takes a lot of practice.

My wife and I have waxed our boat every spring; part of the ritual. I have only used a mild polish (Starbrite or 3M) once or twice in thirteen years. Last spring there was a crew in the marina waxing boats. we were just finishing up bottom painting after waxing the day before. One of the 'pros' asked if ours was one of the boats they maintained. I proudly said, "Nope just wife and I". he wanted to know which wax I used, which is Four Seasons Trewax Boat Wax from Boat US/West Marine. I've been using it for about 20 years and my 88 Catalina 30 looked like new when I traded it in. Practical Sailor had rated it highly and I've been using it ever since.

It certainly isn't my favorite job, I even hate waxing my car. But it's kept the boat looking like new. And when I start to feel tired, I just look over at the 89 year old guy who's waxing his Columbia and I don't feel so bad.:)

I think the trick is to keep after it. I wax the hull topsides each Spring and it looks like new after 11 years. I just use a good combination cleaner/wax from 3M or Meguars. No compound needed. The deck gets a lot more abuse and is starting to need an occasional heavier cleaner before waxing and the wax does not last a full year.

I have a power polisher, but prefer to do things by hand. I can get a better feel of what is happening and spend extra time on an oxidized spot. With the orbital buffer/polisher I tend to move on too quickly and don't change the cloth as often. I also can't hold it over my head that long when doing the topsides.

I'm about to start this on Friday. This boat hasn't had any love in a long time and it shows. I fixed a bunch of significant gelcoat gouges and dings yesterday with Spectrum patch paste and other than the slight color mismatch from fading, it turned out excellent. The water line is a huge mess, even oxalic acid won't remove the scum on there, it's scraper and razor blades used extremely carefully to avoid damaging the gelcoat further.

Now I am going to compound the hull with my power polisher and that will bring the gloss back. Then I'm going to lay on a coat of Meguiar's yellow carnauba wax by hand. And it will sparkle like new again. It will take me two long, hard days of work. No way I would pay anybody anything to do this, it's a labour of love and, more importantly, I'll know every square inch of that boat's hull when I'm done. The wax is a yearly ritual, the compounding only when it's needed.

Problem I have with the PoliGlow and similar substances is that once it starts to come off, and sooner or later it will, it looks really bad and there's not much you can do about it. Boats I've seen that had it and were losing it looked like your skin after you got a sunburn and it peeled. All blotchy and not nice.

At every haul every two years, out I pay to have the yard crew do a hull buff and polish, I then usually put another coat of wax on it while it is out of the water, it is so much easier then.

In the water I put a coat of wax on once or twice a year. I use my deck brush with an extension to put the wax on, wrap rags around it to take it off.
The last time I did this I used a new product from West Marine, it is their brand label Pure Oceans Nanotec wax, it goes on far easier than anything I have used in the past and comes off easier as well. The gloss is superior to what I was getting with Carnuba or Turtle Wax. It is holding up well and does not get as dull and chalky over time as the other waxes I had used.

Never heard of that stuff Pat but I'll certainly look for it now.

Thanks!

I'm halfway through my buff and wax and right now, paying someone to do it looks pretty good. It's like two boats now, a shiny bright new one with no decals on the starboard side and a dirty, grimy old one on port. Considering the abuse this poor old girl has had it is looking pretty good, though seeing it up close reveals a ton of little scratches and marks. But by the 10 foot rule, it looks great. This boat has had 3 previous names on it and you can still see them all if you look closely, no amount of compounding and buffing will change that.

I used the rubber wheel thing to remove the stripes but pulled the name decals off by hand. Not sure which was worse, I have a massive blister on my thumb from pulling decals but the wheel thing is no picnic either, it jumps and hops all over the place. 1 wheel will do 72 feet of two line stripes but not much more. The new stripes will be easy to line up because the old ones left easily visible marks on the hull.

There must be a better material than gel coat for coating boat hulls. It just wears away silently, take a decal off and the ridge of non-worn gelcoat under the decal can be felt with your thumb nail.

Does anyone use anything on the non-slip deck? My hull looks great and I get comments on it, but you can't wax the deck itself and it looks faded. It'd be nice to freshen it up without making it slippery.

Related question....

The white deck area between the 'gray deck texture' and the large forward V berth hatch apparently has so degraded that it has taken on the appearance of a rubbed out faded gray. Again the faded gray I am referring to is an area that should be white.....i.e where the forward hatch area and topside deck meet the gray deck texture.

At first I thought it might be overspray or similar from the factory installation of the gray deck texture...but that does not appear to be the case. Rather it looks as though someone had taken rubbing compound to the white area and the surface gave way to this gray area...hope this makes sense?

Anyway, a) wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience and b) how do you restore the white paint in this topside area?

Thanks!!

al

Rich
I have a 1985 36', this winter I wet sanded the jell coat with 600 then 2000 then 3000, after that I compounded and the waxed the entire hull, it looks like a new boat. its not as hard as it looks if you have the time, if not the 450.00 is is steep but worth it if properly done. should be at least compound and wax.

btw, now that my boat is bright and shiny when it rained the deck drains left their usual vertical dark soot stains, may be someone will have a fix for that.

J.A.C.

[QUOTE=pierview;5041]Does anyone use anything on the non-slip deck? My hull looks great and I get comments on it, but you can't wax the deck itself and it looks faded. It'd be nice to freshen it up without making it slippery.[/QUOTE]

Pierview,

I have been using Woody Wax on the deck, including all the non-skid, at the recommendation of Practical Sailor. It is easy to apply and seems to help slow the deterioration and the nasty stains all the bird droppings tend to make. I have not researched WHY it is considered fine for non-skid, but I took them at their word and I haven't noticed it being any slipperier.

Duane,

Where did you find Woody Wax? Were there other brands also? I have been trying to find something for the non-skid that will make it look better and not be slippery.

Richard,

It has been a number of years since the article, so I have no recollection of any other choices for non-skid.

Most of the boating supply places local to me carry Woody Wax. You can search for it online and read about it and the application method.

Essentially, you wash the deck and rinse. Then while it is wet, you apply WW with a soft brush (I use a long handled boat brush) as it uses the water to disperse the fine film of WW over the deck. The polishing part takes the most time, depending on how much polishing you care to do.

Island Girl product used to have something just for non-skid which had UV protection, but I think the company must have gone under.

Woody wax has a good page here with links to local dealers:
[URL="http://www.woody-wax.com/news.php"]http://www.woody-wax.com/news.php[/URL]

They also say West Marine carries it, but I haven't seen it.

[quote=alpace;5044]Related question....

The white deck area between the 'gray deck texture' and the large forward V berth hatch apparently has so degraded that it has taken on the appearance of a rubbed out faded gray. Again the faded gray I am referring to is an area that should be white.....i.e where the forward hatch area and topside deck meet the gray deck texture.

At first I thought it might be overspray or similar from the factory installation of the gray deck texture...but that does not appear to be the case. Rather it looks as though someone had taken rubbing compound to the white area and the surface gave way to this gray area...hope this makes sense?

Anyway, a) wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience and b) how do you restore the white paint in this topside area?

Thanks!!

al[/quote]

Al, I believe what you are seeing there is the gel coat has severely thinned out and you're seeing the underlying glass starting to show through. We had some areas on our 28 were the gel coat was thin and you could see the blue marker resin below it printing through in places. Gel coat wears away from exposure to the elements over time. Which is why we have 3 names showing up on our boat that are not there anymore and two stripes which are also no longer there, at least until next Saturday!!