love hate relationship with my colored hull

[Mikep]

It sure looks pretty when its clean.. but the water in Southern Cal is so hard, the water spots just take over my blue hull. I have tried misting the boat after a wash with distilled water, did not really help... About the only thing that works is a full shammy wipe down to dry every time I use and wash the boat.

Any tricks I should be trying?

 

[sjreib]

I rinse my blue hulled Cutwater with a 50/50 of salt away and liquid turtle wax. Seems to keep my boat looking good, but I'm in the PNW and moored undercover. Give it a try.

 

[Brian98133]

I know some car detailers will use a Jet-Dry rinsing agent (like what is used in dishwashers) when spraying the last rinse over the vehicle... what I don't know is if gelcoat is any different than paint. I would think it's fine...

I had a blue-hulled Sea Ray as my last boat, and it was a BUGGER trying to keep the gelcoat looking good! I never had to deal with hard-water on that boat thankfully. But I did rinse it down with a little SaltAway after each outing, and the oxidation started getting real bad. When I told that to different detailers I was hiring, they chastised me for using SaltAway without washing afterwards. Said it was bad to leave it on the gelcoat?

Nonetheless, maybe look into a rinsing agent like Jet-Dry?

 

[RobMcClain]

I use a portable deionized water system to wash my 23’ Cape Cruiser (C-Dory) and it works amazingly well. I also use it on a travel trailer and on our house windows. Simply do a normal wash and rise off the soap and gunk using water from the system, which is connected to a normal pressurized outlet. I then simply let the boat (or windows) drip dry and it dries completely spotless. I live in Las Vegas and we have amazingly hard and mineral filled water (including from rain, as well as the water in Lake Mead) so washing anything with tap water, like the boat or a car, leaves tons of hard to remove water spots unless instantly and concurrently dried by hand. Washing used to be a chore but not anymore. I know this sounds like a commercial, but it has been my experience. I’ve noticed 3 drawbacks to the system. One is the initial system cost. Another is the weight, even of the small one. It’s relatively heavy and bulky to move around. And another is the continuing cost of the resin refills for the 2 resin containers. Each refill costs roughly $50 and includes both containers, and I get about 4 washes before I start to notice some spotting. The longer I go without a refill the more spots I’ll start seeing. There are many systems out there on the market, including from Costco. The one I have is the Spotless DIW-10. While I wash my boat on the trailer at my house, I don’t know why it wouldn’t work just as well in a marina.

 

[Scuba Too]

I use a similar approach as Rob - I rinse the boat with soft water. It works amazingly well! My boat is also in Southern California (Huntington Harbor) and has the dark blue hull. I have the CR Spotless DI-120 which I keep in the dock locker. And yes it's a bit pricey but well worth it to me. I use their resin exchange program - they send it overnight via FedEx with a return label - all included in the $60 cost.

https://crspotless.com/product/di-120-m ... ng-system/

Note that I use a good amount of water rinsing figuring that it's better to chew up some resin than to get water spots. I have a buddy who helps out after a day on the water and he's very conservative with water. And yes water spots appear later. I haven't had the heart yet to tell him so I just give it another rinse after he's left lol.