Neither.
Slippery boats are a problem when carrying, loading and unloading from a vehicle, and during rescues. If you store your boat under cover, the gelcoat won’t fade and you don’t need to waste time waxing. If it makes you happy, buff it once a year with a product like Dolphinite.
My Solstice by Current Designs fades if not sealed, polished, or 303 applied Only time it’s not covered is when in use or being washed.
Solstice is 08 and I have it since 2010. Original owner hardly used and stored it in garage like new. He used it 4-5 times.
I use varnish.
Oh wait! I don’t have gel coat.
But varnish don’t last forever either correct?
Varnish is highly UV degradable. I’ve used Spar Varnish on my wood boats but think another layer of protection is a good idea.
I am old enough to remember it on wood boats.
@PaddleDog52 said:
But varnish don’t last forever either correct?
Yep - every 2 - 3 years I’ll give the Tern a sanding and a new coat of varnish.
@rival51 said:
@PaddleDog52 said:
But varnish don’t last forever either correct?Yep - every 2 - 3 years I’ll give the Tern a sanding and a new coat of varnish.
Its this way the varnish has UV protection for the epoxy fiberglass wood composite below it. A good quality marine varnish of several coats will last many years. The varnish on my boats, is most degraded by sand, concrete, odd tree parts, pipes, piling, rocks, racks and worst of all barnacles. Repair occurs as needed. Best refinish technique is to remove all the rigging and use paint remover then sand and re coat. Small areas are sanded and recoated.
On my gel coat boats we use Starbright cleaner/wax when condition warrants (annually more or less). Yes it takes a little oxidation and thickness off but the 12 year old and the 35 year old boats are doing well. All boats are washed with “Zip Wax” , and automotive wash product with soap and light wax film.
I got no Idea what kind of sealer Paddle Dog52 is talking about. However Turning Point Boatworks is using a lot of automotive clear coat on composite epoxy boats with good success. In that case a cleaner wax is the wrong thing to use.
@Overstreet said:
@rival51 said:
@PaddleDog52 said:
But varnish don’t last forever either correct?Yep - every 2 - 3 years I’ll give the Tern a sanding and a new coat of varnish.
Its this way the varnish has UV protection for the epoxy fiberglass wood composite below it. A good quality marine varnish of several coats will last many years. The varnish on my boats, is most degraded by sand, concrete, odd tree parts, pipes, piling, rocks, racks and worst of all barnacles. Repair occurs as needed. Best refinish technique is to remove all the rigging and use paint remover then sand and re coat. Small areas are sanded and recoated.
On my gel coat boats we use Starbright cleaner/wax when condition warrants (annually more or less). Yes it takes a little oxidation and thickness off but the 12 year old and the 35 year old boats are doing well. All boats are washed with “Zip Wax” , and automotive wash product with soap and light wax film.
I got no Idea what kind of sealer Paddle Dog52 is talking about. However Turning Point Boatworks is using a lot of automotive clear coat on composite epoxy boats with good success. In that case a cleaner wax is the wrong thing to use.
Type is explained above in the link I supplied. Common use on cars.
303 is the ticket…
If you’re concerned about shine leave the boat on the rack! I bought all my boats for use not eye candy.
No sense having a boat or anything else I own look like shit. I enjoy looking at my kayaks, boat, cars and trucks over decades old and look new. I get pleasure maintaining them. Like I said before if I paddle 2 or 8 hours it doesn’t matter to ME if I spend 10 or 20 minutes keeping it looking good. Next time I unwrap it, it still looks new and gives me pleasure. For me personally I would not enjoy a kayak with the deck all burned up in the sun. Guess I should not bother cleaning my drysuit either just paddle till I drop and wing it in a pile at the end of the day. To each their own. So if I sell what I own or give it away it won’t look like a lump of crap.
Kayak below is 18 years old but I still don’t mind seeing it shine. It took a few hours when I got it to make it look like that. I got it on eBay for 800 with mud on it guess I could have just paddle three more hours and left it like crap. The tandem below is 19 years old. It also needed some care and cost 900.
Same boat which one would anyone here rather own? Before paint I paid 200 or 300 for it. Boat was so filthy color was hardly known. Dealer saw it on roof from house and didn’t know what it was composite or plastic or type and they sold Current Designs kayaks.
Nice collection of boats Paddle Dog. One time I spent about 3 days trying to get a tannin stain off the white gel hull.
@PaddleDog52 said:
Wax never helped my race boat go any faster but it looked better waxed at the races.
Glad you came over from the dark side.
Always love to go fast. Cars, bikes, boats, now kayaks. Well now it’s is it going to be 6.75 or 7.5 mph. Still fun to get the most possible.
@shiraz627 said:
Nice collection of boats Paddle Dog. One time I spent about 3 days trying to get a tannin stain off the white gel hull.
Thanks all good deals except the cheapest one I restored. Probably near 900 in it and much much labor. Well that was free. Then trying to get cables in it was a bear. I had a cut off saw in my hand with 14" blade. I was ready to cut it in half. Now I learned tricks after that and the others were easy. Luck the saw actually didn’t start and I cooled off a bit. Learned a lot with them all. Swapping seats to wide base, new cables, painting, glassing in Sea-lect pedals pedals and dumping sliding Yakima pedals.
Leaning how to get into the front of an Extreme to work was also fun for my size.