I recently acquired some really nasty stains on my hulls while lake sailing. I tried "Star Brite" hull cleaner, wax, and even Simple Green cleaner, they didn't even come close to doing the job... Someone told me to try Comet cleaner. Is that safe for the finish? I don't race yet, so I was going to finish off with a good coat of wax... Has anyone tried the Teflon hull finish? Would that cut down on my hull stains?
West Marine (As much as I hate them) has some kind of acid chemical that literally took the stains off my hulls in seconds. Just don't breathe the stuff.
I had an older boat with stained hulls and used Soft Scrub with really good success. Comet is pretty abraisive and can leave nasty scratches. Soft Scrub has very mild abraisve backed up with bleach. For particularly tough areas I used a random-orbit sander with soft scrub and went very, VERY easy on the pressure. Once everything was clean and well rinsed I applied a fiberglass sealer then a wax. The result was pretty good considering the boat was 10 years old and had traveled a lot of road and water miles. The one precausion is to go easy on repaired areas or anyplace the gelcoat might be thin. Abraisive cleaners, even mild ones, take off a microscopic layer of material each time you use them and can remove a thin layer of gelcoat over time. Also, wear something you don't mind getting bleach on. Your favorite regatta T-shirt could get wrecked in this cleaning process.
Anything with oxalic acid in it (Davis FSR, Zud, Barkeeper's Friend) will work wonders with stains, especially those picked up from tannins in water (brown lake stains).
I've used FSR (even helped with a rust stain or two), and do use a teflon based polish on the hulls. Makes things look great, and as I am a believer in "clean is fast", I think it helps. Of course, the effort to polish/wax the hulls is somewhat tantric in itself, which probably helps in getting your boat "zen". All those little chips and dings you see/fix while doing this probably helps...
The only drawback with the teflon based waxes/polishes (from what I hear) is that it may be hard to do small scratch repairs due to the teflon coating (probably have to remove it first with light sanding) but I've never had a big problem. Of course, handling a wet hull on the trailer is pretty dang slippery, too!
Even though I may not finish first, I finish looking good!
Thanks for all the help! I tried Soft Scrub, good results,without alot of elbow grease... It is raining here in Memphis all week, so it looks like I get to put off applying Teflon for another week...
