It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!!

[Gerry Zagorski]

Won't be long before we all start getting our boats ready to launch. We always try to get in by mid April and do everything in the spring up on the hard before we launch since we keep it in a slip..

What wax have you all been using? Our hull is in fairly good shape since we've kept up with it over the years.. Was using Colinite cleaner wax and have used the 3M cleaner wax last year with decent results. Both go on pretty easy with a random orbital polisher. Trick is to wash the boat real well before you apply it and change the bonnets when they get dirty or you're just waxing the dirt back into your hull.

Learned over the years not to bother trying to wax or compound the brown stains off the water line. This stuff works great https://www.westmarine.com/buy/maryk...61?recordNum=1 and no rubbing needed. You just brush it on and the stains disappear. No elbow grease required.

For Bottom paint we've been using https://www.westmarine.com/buy/west-...58?recordNum=3 and only paint the water line an just touch up the hull where needed since it's a multi season paint... This stuff has gone up in price a lot so would be interested to hear what others are using.

Going to need a new house battery this year so looking for suggestions. Seems like most we've had don't last very long. Although we have an on board charger, we anchor and drift a lot for long periods of time with the motors off so my guess the deep discharge cycles eventually kills them and after a season they don't seem to hold a charge very well... Any suggestions on a good true deep cycle 12 volt?

One other thing we've started using on the recommendation of a friend that works pretty well on the non skid is this stuff https://www.westmarine.com/buy/star-...89?recordNum=3 . It cleans and protects it. The protection does work pretty well but does not last very long so we use it a few times a month, not every wash. Been using woody wax on the non skid to protect it as well but it does not clean so you have to clean and then protect... I like the other stuff better since it cleans and protects at the same time. I tried this stuff one year https://www.auroramarine.com/store/p...otect-kit.html. It was expensive and a PITA and I wasn't impressed with the results.

What are you using on anodized aluminum. I haven't found anything that works very well... Once it starts to dull and pit you're pretty much done. I used this stuff once https://www.amazon.com/Collinite-850...26039990&psc=1 to try and get some of the dullness and pitting out but the results were not that great. So now I'm using https://www.amazon.com/s?k=alumaguar..._sb_ss_fb_1_10 easy on and easy off.

On our stainless stuff using good old Never dull and haven't found anything that works better https://www.amazon.com/BASCH-GEORGE-...ds=never+dull+ we have stainless morse controls on the boat that were all pitted from salt water and neglect... It was a tedious job (probably around a 6 pack) but they look new and we use it on the bow rails, cleats with great results as well..


Won't be long now fellas... What's on your list and what products do you like best?