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Polishing

Virtually all fiberglass boats are protected on the outside with a pigmented polyester resin called gelcoat. While it’s very robust, gelcoat is, compared to paint, quite porous and soft, so it needs to be regularly maintained — cleaned, polished, and waxed — if it’s to continue looking good and protecting the boat’s laminate structure from sun and saltwater. If this is done it will outlast any paint.

We always take the same approach to boat polishing: we use the gentlest compound we can that will clean the gelcoat and remove oxidation, and follow it immediately with a good carnauba paste wax. We see many boats that are polished too aggressively, then waxed with a liquid wax, which is easier to apply but in our experience doesn’t last more than a few months. On the other hand, there are many boats that we polish and wax year after year, and we find that even after a whole year or more, the hulls are still good looking and well protected.

While there are a number of proprietary gelcoat care compounds and services out there, we find that the traditional methods, when used with care, are more affordable, more flexible, and keep boats looking great.