A New Lease Of Life

Plenty of polish and slathers of elbow grease work wonders on a tired hull.

- Jack Haines

The hull of my Jeanneau Cap Camarat 6.5 WA, Kipper, has a hard life. Living on a swing mooring with a tonneau cover for protection, the topsides are exposed to sun, wind, rain and spray during the season with no way of giving them a proper wash on a regular basis. Mix in the odd scrape from the viciously spiky pier where I often collect guests, and it’s safe to say the offer from 3M to send someone down to treat the hull with its new range of polish and wax couldn’t have come at a better time.

The new products are part of 3M’s Gelcoat Finishing System and include a boat wash, two compounds for medium or heavy oxidisation, a polish for less major degradation, and a wax. All of them have been designed specifically for gelcoat and claim to stay wetter for longer on the pad so you spend less time reapplying and more time elbow-greasing. Polishing a hull is a strenuous enough task at the best of times, so anything that makes it even a little bit easier sounds good to me.