Captain Bob's Adventures

Sanding, sanding, sanding.  No easy way to say it other than this is a hard, dirty, nasty job.  I used an orbital sander, attached a shop vac, and even so, came out looking like a blue smurf.  If you decide to do this, take my advice and go ahead and purchase a disposable throw away clean room type suite and wear it.  Glasses, mask, gloves, the works.  You will get this stuff all over you in every crack and crevice and it is difficult to get off. After sanding for a couple of days, I had to figure out how I was going to paint under the bunks, and in the areas around the keel.  The seaward group over at Trailer Sailor was a great help with ideas they had used.  So I got a some 2x6's and my ratchet straps out and went to it.  All in all it worked fine.  I went with Pettit Hydrocoat SR in blue and ordered it from Defender.  It was $200 for a gallon, so pricey stuff.  They aren't joking when folks talk about spending some time ...

I'd been reading many different internet sites on the methods of cleaning up gel coat and found one I particularly liked at the sailboat owners forum. From reading, I have some respect for the poster in his approach on many different things, so I decided to following his method. Here's the link to his post: Maine Sail's Tips For a Great Buff Wax  I did the wet sand, used his recommended products for buffing, buffer pads, wax, and wax methods. It took me a good three days of on and off work to get this completed, but the results speak for themselves I think.   Before After It certainly is by no means perfect and I can see as he said you can really spend hours and hours continuing to perfect it if you so desire, but Overall, I was happy with the outcome.