Any "miracle" products for maintaining your boat?

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For metal use this:

https://www.amazon.com/Collinite-850-Metal-Wax-Pint/dp/B0006FKDVK?

Gelcoat:

Compound/wet sand, polish, wax. No way around it. Do it yourself or pay someone.

You could also look into having your hull ceramic coated. Expensive, but some people report they get years of protection.

Of course you could just paint it every 5-10 years as needed.

For regular cleaning. Bleach and water, sometimes Dawn before a wax. Mostly I just hose the boat down and do a spring cleaning at the beginning of the year.
 
Thanks for the ideas.

We don't use anything besides soapy water for each use, sometimes just water.
But every other month or so something gets additional attention.
The windows get a scrub, or deck, or tank holders, or whatever. Eventually everything gets more than just a wipe.
But I'm lazy and always trying to find a way to use less elbow grease.
Going to be 13 years with this vessel and besides a few cosmetic details feels like the first year.
 
Sounds like nothing has changed with boats in the last 30 years.
They were always just holes in the surface of the water that needed to be filled with cash.
I'm told that the 2nd best day in your life is when you buy a boat and the best day is when you sell your boat, but they are a fun way of consuming your spare cash.

Michael
 
Sounds like nothing has changed with boats in the last 30 years.
They were always just holes in the surface of the water that needed to be filled with cash.
I'm told that the 2nd best day in your life is when you buy a boat and the best day is when you sell your boat, but they are a fun way of consuming your spare cash.

Michael
Those two days are often cyclical. Buy, sell, buy another, sell another, wash, rinse, repeat. :wink:
 
I'm told that the 2nd best day in your life is when you buy a boat and the best day is when you sell your boat, but they are a fun way of consuming your spare cash.

Michael

If that's the case I hope to never have another best day in my life.
I haven't done the numbers lately but on the 5th year anniversary of the purchase of the boat the numbers for us were just over $50 per dive. This November will be 13 years and we haven't had anything major gone wrong, maintenance and one prop.
May not be amazing money wise, but what's the price of setting your schedule? How about not having to follow dreamed up rules from know-it-all charters, and the best of all.... Having to listen to other divers mansplaining things about your gear.
Also doesn't take into account dozens or great private dinners, air shows and coincidentally tomorrow will be another 4th of July in the water. No crowds and the whole sky for us to enjoy the fireworks.
I'd be happy to pay double for keeping my boat. Don't want a boatless life even if I end up sanding the 4 window frames with a sandpaper in order to see them pretty.
 
..I'd be happy to pay double for keeping my boat. ...
YEP,,,I'd say a private boat is 3-4 time more PRODUCTIVE when diving from it. It's not just harvesting, but even photography, training, testing new equipment and that ability to not always be on a schedule. If you found a good spot, fine stay and swim with the dolphins/manta/whale shark. You don't have to be back at the dock at XX-O'clock. P.S. money isn't the issue, our boat makes money each trip.
 
Mine averages a little over $200 per trip including the original price, slip fee, insurance, fuel, maintenance and repairs, and add-ons. It's worth every penny. I've photographed animals I would have never seen on beach dives or charters. We've had two pods of orcas swimming around our boat, including mating. The same with Gray whales. We've had Blue whales, the largest animals to ever live almost touch the hull. I found and dived a WWI German U-Boat that I would have never seen on any charter. I can't put a price on those memories, and those still to come.

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A sold sign
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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