How to polish your boat.

Materials, preparation, misconceptions & common mistakes

I won´t lie, I actually quite like polishing, I find it very therapeutic, I am also like to get the maximum results and not waste energy and products. There are many misconceptions, snake oils and general bad advice on how to polish a boat, so let´s break it down.

Getting your boat sparkling like new, there are few things more satisfying, but also more time wasted and money squandered than anything else I can think of on a boat. Achieving a good long lasting finish requires a little know how, some time and some elbow grease, first of all lets get down to what you are shining up!

Gelcoat

The shiny (or dull if you're reading this) plastic stuff is porous like skin, dirt enters, the surface oxidises and causes that chalky dull finish.

Prevention is better than cure, every time you polish or compound the gelcoat you are removing a fine layer, keeping it maintained without having to resort to using abrasives is much better. You can use a wash and wax shampoo to keep the gelcoat protected or cleaner waxes, these have the least amount of abrasive and offer a level of protection.

Cleaning

You cannot expect good results by polishing a dirty or salty boat. Use the two bucket method, one with your soap and water mix, the other with fresh water, after each use of the cleaning brush or sponge rinse it in the fresh water, the dirt will come out and not be transferred again to the gelcoat.

Dry the boat off and now you can take a closer look. If I am going to use any strong or caustic solutions, for removing rust, shining up stainless steel or cleaning the decks, especially teak, this is the stage when I will do it. There is nothing worse than using heavy duty products and having them leave streaks and marks on your freshly polished boat. This is also a common mistake, the final stage of any surface restoration should be the polishing and waxing or sealing. Scrub the decks, how to clean your boat like a pro.

Preparation

Apart from having everything you need for polishing (polish, wax, polishing machine, spare cloths etc.) There are a few other things you will need to do.

• Remove any stickers or logos from the hull. Some might be screwed on, others stuck on, decide in advance if you will be keeping them or replacing them. If the stickers are original or have been on for a long time, when you remove them you will see the original gelcoat colour, this is a good baseline of where you need to be at when finished. There are several ways to remove stickers, heating them gently and scraping them off, there are dedicated plastic razors for this, another option is an eraser wheel, they are used with a drill and will make the job much easier. Old stickers, inevitably leave a residue on the hull, always clean this off before polishing.

• Boat cover clips and studs. You´ll want to remove these, either all of them if you can or bits of he boat at a time, foam polishing heads can get ruined by passing over these. Gives you the opportunity to replace any broken clips and reseal them.

• Antifouling. Use painters tape to cover edge of the antifouling where it meets the topsides, it´s very annoying to catch the paint with your polisher and leave marks all over your nice shiny gelcoat.

• Height. When boats are out of the water in the boatyard, they are chocked up, this increases their height dramatically, make provision in advance for platforms (might be available for hire in the boatyard), polishing from a ladder is not a good idea, neither is trying to use a polisher from the deck pointing downwards.

• Extension cables. The plugs in a yard are not usually standard household types, you will need adapters or an extension cable with the right ends. You would be how surprised how quickly you can run out of extension cable when going around a big boat. 

Compounding

This is the first stage in polishing. A compound is an abrasive either in liquid or paste form ranging from mild to heavy cutting properties. You need to assess just how faded the gelcoat is. The darker the colour of gelcoat, the more effort will be needed to restore a good shine on are, they get affected by UV rays far worse than white gelcoats.

A wool polishing bonnet is my preferred choice or for maximum cutting, wool bonnets because they can be washed and reused, also if you happened to touch a cleat or canopy clip, wool will not break up and loose chunks like some sponge type pads will, removing the canopy clips or studs if possible makes life much easier.

I have seen a lot of people polishing using the edge of the pad on large flat areas, this is a mistake, try to keep the bonnet as flat as possible, it will take less time and also not leave as many holograms or swirl marks on the gelcoat, you will notice these marks far more on dark colours than white gelcoat.

When using foam polishing pads there is colour sequence, check with your supplier, they are graded for use with the different cutting properties of the compounds or polishes.

The heavier the abrasive the more solids it will tend to have, some pastes look like mud with sand in them, if you are not used to them, do not overapply or start too large an area, they can be hard work. If you are getting problems with burning the paste and it hardening, slow your polisher down and don´t apply too much pressure, when working in hot environments a small spray of water to keep the abrasive a bit more liquid can help.

Polishing

This is buffing up the already restored gelcoat, if the hull is white this stage is really optional. But if the gelcoat was really dull and you have had to use a heavy cutting compound it can leave swirl marks and holograms, so use a fine cut compound or polish to get rid of these fine marks.

If the gelcoat was not in bad condition or heavily oxidised to start off with, this might be the first step, again use the wool bonnet in a machine. Polish is not nearly as abrasive as the aggressive cutting compounds. If you are doing a mid season shine up, there are also rapid polished that contain waxes, sometimes known as “cleaner waxes”, low abrasive properties and will both lightly cut any oxidation and leave a protective layer at the same time.

Polishes are a lot thinner than cutting compounds, do not apply to much or else when the polisher gets up to speed it will sling product everywhere. Move in areas you can comfortably work with and wipe off the dust and excess product using a microfiber cloth.

Wax on wax off

This is one of those Marmite subjects, either die hard waxers or those who prefer synthetic sealers, so here is my take on it. Natural waxes offer a greater shine than synthetic sealers, there is no doubt, this is more noticeable or dark colours but, because waxes are natural, they breaks down and lose their protection far faster than synthetic products.

If a synthetic sealer is allowed to fully dry and cure, natural wax can be put on over the top, this is handy because natural wax is not difficult to apply by hand. The one thing I have found with natural wax is that its temperature sensitive, the colder it is the harder the wax is and more difficult to apply.

Ceramics

I have left this till last. These are the latest form of sealers or more precisely, coating. I have mixed opinions about it, having seen a company perform a coating on a very well prepared boat, I was less than impressed, perhaps it was incorrectly applied? Conversely, I have seen a car ceramic coated and the result was exceptional. I am neither go for or against. I would advise using a professional company to do the work, at the time of writing, I gather doing it yourself is not impossible but not mainstream.

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