Spring Cleaning

Time to get your boat cleaned up and ready for summer! Here are some of my best boat cleaning tips for you to try this upcoming season.

Simple Green and a nylon bristle scrub brush works great on getting the dirt and old sunscreen out of crevices or patterns of your vinyl interiors. Light scrubbing only, we don't want to damage anything. Scrub a small spot about as big as the palm of your hand and wipe with a clean towel. I've learned that trying to scrub larger areas tends to make more work by moving dirt from A to B without ever removing it from the seats. Repeat this process until you have all the grime removed. Clean the sides of the seat cushions and underneath where the cushions sit on the fiberglass. These spots trap moisture and dirt and can stain if not attended to.

The same technique of scrubbing a small area with a scrub brush and wiping with a clean rag will get fiberglass floors cleaned up. If there is a diamond tread like on a Chaparral boat, move the brush in the same direction as the imprinted pattern. You will likely use more rags than you anticipated. To get maximum use out of one rag fold it into sections and as you dirty a section reverse your folds to reveal a new clean surface.

Here at Shady Creek, we use Windex on the fiberglass parts of a boat and on windshields because it does not streak or leave a film behind. Hard water spots on boat windshields can be frustrating, but we have a solution to that. Hard water spots can be taken care of by a product called Hot Sauce from Bling Sauce. Hot Sauce is a water spot remover and high gloss sealant. It works great on the stainless parts, like rub rail, chaffing plates, cleats and vents. Hot Sauce also tackles water spots on fiberglass and leaves a nice glossy finish.

Black marks caused by snaps rubbing on the gelcoat can be removed with a rubbing compound. I use 3M 36060, it works great. It may take some elbow grease, but rubbing compound can get a lot of pesky marks off of fiberglass. If you have any marring around your bow eye caused by the bow roller, rubbing compound or acetone will take it off. White marks on the rub rail can be removed by acetone also.

Light water line stains on the hull can be removed by Simple Green. If your hull is still yellow, try Zing hull cleaner. Use Zing outdoors and follow its safety precautions.

The last cleaning tip I will leave you with is that regular kitchen Lemon Pledge makes for a pretty good wheel black.

This will get your boat cleaned up and looking good! See you on the water.