Post by Andy Ireland.
For those that know me at cleaning time around the boat I’m sure they call me a pain in the butt but I am anal about leaving the dock with a “clean” boat “Hey Roscoe”. To that end I have tried a gazillion products to get that “best” look. A white boat should look WHITE! Here is my review of a couple of absolute winners, use these and your pride and joy will shine!
First, what should you wash with? Well, I’m not telling you anything new by mentioning the plethora of cleaning products at Whitworths, am I? But maybe I can save you a few bucks because by hell I have bought and tried a few. Rather than rate them let me share the absolute best I have found.
It’s from Starbrite and although their packaging looks crappy (my opinion) the products do work well, especially this one: Non Skid Deck Cleaner with PTEF. Now if your like me you could be asking yourself isn’t PTEF known as Teflon? And isn’t Teflon slippery?
Maybe it is slippery in your frypan but what happens here is “no slip”. Firstly squirt the boat and then use this directly out of the bottle, simply splash it around the deck and then start scrubbing with a soft broom. It will suds up and it’s best if you can let it sit for a few minutes before hosing off. What happens is that it firstly cleans well straight away, then while basting and bubbling on the deck it gets into the more stubbourn stuff and lifts it up in the suds. Then simply squirt it off.
So what’s different you say! Well the good stuff starts happening now. Your deck has the PTEF coating and believe it or not starts repelling the crud from then on. The more you use it the less bird crap and stuff gets into the deck. Over time I have come to love this stuff as it makes the cleaning job easier the more you use it, the boat is whiter because less crap gets into the gelcoat. I challenge you to take the test, use a bottle and tell me you don’t notice your boat staying just that little bit whiter.
And no the PTEF is not slippery at all. Because you splash around directly out the bottle you do use a bit. Normally around $20 a bottle, Whitworths had a special recently at $10 a bottle. I bought up big! But hey! How much did that boat cost anyway, and a white boat should look WHITE!
At my last haulout I polished the boat. Believe it or not I actually enjoyed it and it took far less time than I thought it would, told you I was anal about a WHITE boat! In fact I polished it a few times in some sections as I tried out different waxes to apply and what they looked like. To cut to the chase one wax was visibly shinier than the others and has lasted very well. This one is from 3M a well known and quality protective coating sort of company.
The Ultra Performance Paste Wax come in a tin and there’s enough to do a 40 footer with plenty spare. I reckon it’s about $36.00 so thats CHEAP for a whole boat.
If you have crew wax your boat for you maybe suggest this stuff. Try it for yourself in a small spot and compare to what you currently use. I reckon this will be shinier, last longer and is no more difficult to apply. In fact being a firm paste it is easy to not use too much or at the least knock the bottle over. I had a $4,000 surface treatment applied to the boat I wasn’t happy with and I polished it off and this wax gave me a better finish without massive recoat costs for the other treatment. Please don’t anyone tell my wife I polished off the $4,000 treatment. She never liked the guy from the start and I’ll never hear the end of it! “I told you so” I can hear it now.
So there you have it, a great base wax treatment and an ongoing product to keep the boat clean and WHITE! Let me know if you give it a go.
Best,
Andy Ireland – “What If”
