Keeping The Boat Shiny : Do Washing and Waxing

Most of us, however, take a certain pride in a clean boat kept new-looking, and a clean hull actually runs better and saves fuel. And the hours of elbow grease spent keeping a boat clean are often repaid when it’s time to sell the boat—appearance is everything when it comes to moving a used boat. Although boats live in water, they get dirty. Those used for fishing get very dirty. To keep a boat looking new and functioning well, it has to be washed regularly—and those used in salt water must be washed after every day on the water. The standard wash-down is with soap and fresh water. Wash-and-wax–type car-wash soaps do a nice job and leave a protective coating on the gel coat, but plain old dish soap is okay, too. A large sponge or wash mitt works best on flat surfaces, but use a scrub brush on skidproof decking and around the crevices and screws on metal work. (Washing all metal parts is particularly important on coastal boats, because just a bit of salt left in place will cause electrolytic corrosion—that green crud.) A scrub brush with a telescoping handle is handy for use on larger boats to reach areas below the waterline.

Fishing offal (or awful, as it’s better termed) comes off best with a bleach solution—use about a cup of bleach per gallon of water. Remember, bleach will eat your clothes and your bare feet and hands; wear old clothes and use a long-handled scrub brush. Wash it off thoroughly with plenty of fresh water. You can pour undiluted bleach into the live wells to get rid of the fishy smell—but be sure to rinse it out very thoroughly, or you’ll come up with some very white but very dead baitfish next trip. Kitchen cleansers with bleach, in a spray bottle, are very handy for spot-cleaning. (Clorox Clean-Up is the best I’ve found.) Spray it on any dark spots on the finish, let it set a few minutes, and wipe the spots away. (Remember, bleach can corrode metal, so keep it off the engine, cleats, and any other metal parts.) It’s a good idea to apply a fiberglass cleaner about twice a year to remove chalking caused by the sun. This brings back the shine, which can then be preserved by using a fiberglass wax.

Although it may be tempting to try an abrasive cleansing powder on a dulled fiberglass finish, don’t do it. The stuff eats right through the gel coat, making it impossible to ever get a shine again. Microabrasives or cleaners like Soft Scrub do the job with gentle pressure but don’t destroy the gel coat. The gel coat is the outer layer of a fiberglass boat, the “skin” that gives the hull its shine and color. It’s a hard resin, thicker and more durable than paint. Got a green scum line on your hull? Spray it with straight bleach. The stuff vaporizes algae, so that you scarcely have to scrub—just hose it off with fresh water. (This doesn’t work if there’s oil or other goop in the line, however.) Many soaps and cleaners can be harmful to marine life. Use biodegradable cleaners and avoid letting phosphates run into the water by washing your boat on shore when possible.

Once a boat has been thoroughly washed and allowed to dry, it’s wise to add a good paste wax designed for gel coats, at least twice yearly. The wax cuts down on ultraviolet oxidation and also causes some dirt to slide off, as well as making your gel coat look brighter. Special formulas for glass, such as Rain-X and Rain View, are well worth buying for offshore boaters who regularly get water on their windshields. The products make the glass so slippery that most water simply slides off, giving much better visibility even without windshield washers. (Salt crusts on the shield when it dries, though, so you still have to wash it down later.) Rain-X is so slippery that some boaters apply it to their boat bottoms to keep algae from forming a scum line. Just rub it on and wipe it off—a treatment once a month helps a lot.