Buff, the magic polish

Our cruise to Greenport, Long Island had to be postponed due to a death in Frances' family. That sad occasion was made a little nicer when we got a visit from Frances' sister, Tina, who had flown from Oregon for the funeral.

Tina has been on our boat before and was quite at home there. Dinner preparation on Saturday night was accompanied by lots of chatting, as you might expect.  Tina is a regular reader of our blog so it's fitting that we include a couple of pictures of her. Actually, we had a really nice time.

 Frances also got to show off her collection of fine wine glasses, all plastic, of course. We really don't know where that woman stowes all this stuff.

 After dinner, our dockmate John Hanks offered to take Frances and Tina on a ride up the Yantic River to "Indian Leap," a very nice waterfall about two miles upriver from our marina. Off they went for a very scenic ride in some very shallow water.

 The last time we tried this with our inflatable, we ran aground many times. John was smart enough to make the trip at high tide.

Buff Magic

Knowing that we weren't going for a cruise this weekend, we arrived on Saturday morning prepared to apply some polish to the bridge, cabin and cockpit. We did the hull before the boat went into the water and it was a lot more work that we expected.

We have to begin my admitting that the Gelcoat on our boat isn't in very good condition. We had washed the boat thoroughly last weekend and now attacked the old Gelcoat with Shurhold Yacht Brite Buff Magic (a compound of some kind) and then Shurhold Pro Polish. To make it even more fun, it was sunny and about 85 degrees. (Yes, you can apply these two products inn the sun.)

The result was interesting. First, the Buff Magic, which we applied and removed by hand, without a polishing wheel, takes off every stain and surface scratch and any oxidized Gelcoat that is on the surface. It also cleans up stainless steel fittings and railings very nicely. We came equipped with a couple of dozen terry cloth rags that we use to wash the cars and we used every one of them. Buff Magic really loads up the terry cloth rags quickly and when that happens it is much more difficult to get off completely.

The directions say that there's enough material in that can to do a 40 ft. boat. It turns out that there was just enough to almost do our 34 ft. boat. Maybe we were using it too heavily.

After the Buff Magic, we applied the Pro Polish, which looks and feels like ordinary car polish but is supposed to actually penetrate the Gelcoat and protect it.  We sure as hell hope it does.

On our old Gelcoat, we didn't get a glassy shine but we did get a very smooth surface. It was easy to tell where the Pro Polish stopped just by brushing a finger over it. Probably good enough for this year because we'd rather be cruising that polishing.

The application of Buff Magic to stainless steel is worth mentioning. It takes off every bit of stain and corrosion and will turn a 2 ft. square application cloth black very quickly. If that's followed by Pro Polish, stainless railings and fittings look absolutely beautiful even if they are 33 years old as ours are.

While out Gelcoat doesn't look like new or even close to it, it is remarkably clean.

No amount of washing could ever make our cockpit look like this. With the Pro Polish on it, water beads up everywhere so maybe those nasty black rainwater won't collect as fast.