Boating Tips & Tricks - Spring Edition



 
The sun is getting higher in the sky and today is St. Patrick’s Day which can only mean one thing: To many a boater the time is right to get their little ship ready for the new season.

In this ‘Tips & Tricks’ article, I am going to talk about boat cleaning, pre-season prep and making your boat look great to attract the envy of others.


Boat Washing:

 
It does not matter if you have your boat under a tarpaulin, in a shed, or just bare in the in the open one thing is for sure after just a few weeks her topsides will be looking dull and since many owners pack up for the season in late October and do not return until late March, that is a lot of time for the muck and grime to build up.  


Especially if your boat has a painted surface, it is important not to just reach for any old cleaning products but spend a little and get something nice.  The most important thing you want to look out for is it being PH Neutral.  This is because a product that is too acidic, or conversely too alkaline will cause any protection you may have on the surface, such as polish or wax to be broken down.  


Something like Autoglym’s Bodywork Shampooand Conditioner would be a good bet as it is compatible with all painted surfaces and is PH Neutral. 

But before you even touch the decks you need to get as much of the residue and muck off of them without actually touching them with a sponge or ‘wash broom’. There is a surprising amount of grit and abrasive ‘stuff’ that will get blown about and find itself settled on your boat and going right in with a wet soapy sponge will just push it around and cause some lovely swirl marks in your gel coat or painted finish.  


If you only have a low pressure hose this will do, but with many small low cost pressure washers available now blasting the muck away will be far easier and make short work of the task.  Using a ‘wash broom’ will help with not needing to bend down as much, a soft paint brush and washing up brush can come in handy to get to those difficult places like window gullies and around cleats and fender eyes.  Don’t allow the product you use to clean the boat dry – it will leave a residue that will need far more work to rinse – work in smaller sections.

When you’ve washed the boat, thoroughly rinse with clean water, or get that pressure washer out again – it will use less water at a higher pressure if you are worried about water usage.  


Wax on Wax Off:


Once the boat is washed down and dry you need to protect the boat. 

It may very well be easier to polish a boat when it is on the hard but that might not always be possible, or fit in with your schedule – but it is nice to have the boat lifted once a year, certainly every two so a full polish then is recommended.   Otherwise it is a case of doing the best you can.  What product you use, is down to a matter of choice, but I have found great recommendations in Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company’s products – yep until 2002 that was what ‘3M’ actually stood for.

What you need to do is a two step approach – polish and the seal. It is much easier to use a variable speed polisher, you can spend out quite a bit on machines suited for this or just get the cheapest you can since you will not be doing this too often you need not get the greatest most expensive machine.  Follow the instructions of the polish you use as to the RPM they recommend the polisher is run at, and type of pad used.


Something like 3M’s ‘Perfect-it IIIUltrafina Polish’ used with their 3M ‘Blue Pad’ will give excellent results, this is well past the usual ‘car polishes’ your find in the likes of Halfords in terms of quality but the results will be first class and worth the cost.  You can find very in-depth instructional videos on You Tube from 3M in how to apply their polish and use a polisher with them.  

 
Whatever polish you use only work in a small area before moving on to the next – take your time too and don’t use too much pressure or allow the pad to dry out so keep the pad moist with polish.  Once the polish is applied, use another fresh pad designed to remove the surface film of polish and produce a ‘mirror like’ shine.  Running over this with a microfiber cloth is recommended for any small misses you may have made with the polisher.


Once you’ve polished the area it is good practice to then seal it with a good quality Polymer Sealant. Often used in the car detailing industry – this is an added layer of protection to the polish under, and will further enhance the U.V stabilisation properties and keep the underlying surface protected for longer.


This is especially important if you are polishing a Gel Coat since this is only a hard type of resin that has a pigment in it, and will over time oxidise and ‘chalk’ without good care, polishing and the  protection this affords the surface.


If your Gel Coat is oxidised this is where ‘compounding’ comes in, but that is a whole separate process and should not be done every time you polish – indeed compounded might only be carried out every 4 or 5 years as you physically remove a layer of your Gel Coat doing this.   

 
The Greasy Stuff:

 
If you have not had your engine serviced prior to winter – now is the time to do this. Don’t begin your boating season being lazy with last year’s oil in the engine, or just hoping it will ‘be ok’.  Sure it probably will be, but why risk expensive failures in the future?

Engine servicing on a boat is not hard, and certainly something anyone who know one end of a screwdriver from the other can do and save pounds from having a boatyard do it.  It is not to say that you should have a professional look over things from time to time, but if this is when the boat is out the water (say every two years) then they can also inspect the underwater aspect such as skin fittings in the hull, rudder and propeller etc.

The main things you want to do are:


  • Changing the engine oil and oil filter
  • Check and change if necessary the impeller if rubber is not subtle or is cracked
  • Check the coolant – is there enough, is it mixed to the correct strength?
  • Check drive belts for wear and check tension of them
  • Check engine air filter
  • Check battery terminals for loose connections and corrosion
  • Check battery voltages
  • Check all hoses for signs of wear and hose clamps to ensure fit
  • Check raw water filters for clear flow

Every few hundred hours your need a more through service which will include:   

  • Changing gear box oil 
  • Changing engine oil and filters Changing engine air filter   
  • Changing fuel filters (primary and secondary)   
  • Changing coolant by draining, flushing through and replacing  Checking heat exchanger for scale build up 
  • Replacing Zinc anodes on engine 
  • Replacing Impeller

All engines have manuals and many can be found online with part numbers and service interval times if you have lost yours or inherited a boat without one.  A great help with the process of the above is to look on You Tube, as even if your particular engine is not to be found, someone will have a video on how, for example one drains a gearbox sump with a vacuum pump or how to check batteries and use a volt meter.  
 
Whether you tinker yourself, or pay a professional one thing is for sure – don’t consider the ‘greasy parts’ of your boat out of sight and out of mind, even if you only cruise on the Norfolk Broads and not further out, a small issue can usually be seen and a larger problem prevented by a few simply visual checks, checking the oil levels and the like.


Until next time, happy boating and more...As it happens.

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