Fiberglas maintenance

[TSandM]

Nemrod, the carpet has been one of my thoughts . . . How do you secure it, so that it doesn't fall into the water while you're dragging tanks up over it (or once they've made it on board)?

Oh, and thanks for the tip on Dri Dek. I've been looking for matting, but hadn't found that one.

 

[Nemrod]

The carpet is the indoor type. Use a two inch or so PVC pipe, put sand/shot in it and then glue the caps on. Have an upholstery shop sew a looped edge in the carpet to slide the PVC tube into. This is your seaward weight. On the inner (gunwale) side have snaps sewn in with the male receptacles installed into your gunwale to match. The carpet rolls up on the PVC tube for storage. It only has to be about three feet wide and just long enough to go up and over the gunwale and hang about 2/3s down the outside--give or take. In any case size it's length and width to your boat. It does not need to hang all the way into the water.

If you make people use boots on their tanks, I have found it largely negates the need for the carpet.

Dri-Dek is the bomb!!!!!!!

N

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

I agree with Nemrod about Dri-Dek. It stays put, and survives tanks.
Shop around for price, be sure to check Dri-Dek's own website, and
veterinary supply places (it's alse used in dog kennels so Fido doesn't
lay in his own pee). Install it on a warm day, it's hard to snap together
when it's cold. My boat is fully Dri-Deked.

I keep a mat on the boat to put on the bow locker when I have someone
with unbooted tanks. I keep the mat where I stand at the console.

 

[dannobee]

Lots of great ideas here, Lynne. One that I like is the snap in carpet. I bought mine from this place for my ski/wakeboard boat. I'd never go back to a hard sole on my boat. The 40 oz yacht carpet is NICE.

Eric has the goods on cleaning up the outside. The 3M chemicals work great. For a wax, I'd personally go with Zymol. It's a little more expensive but lasts longer and the shine is second to none.

 

[EastEndDiver]

Mr. Clean magic sponges.I own 2 boats a 43 Viking Sportfisherman and a 15 Scout flats boat I use the Magic sponges on everything and it takes up all stains.It is labor intensive but they work.

 

[GSDMan]

Bleach, Comet, Toilet Bowl Cleaner? Something tells me these things are not good for the marine environment. If anywhere, I would have thought that here that would be of paramount concern.

Spray Nine has a cleaner that's safe for marine applications. It's always worked for me. If not, please stick with West Marine or another boating store and follow their advice.

Jim

 

[Peter Guy]

GSDMan -- any of the cleaning solutions that TSandM would use would NOT be used in the marine environment, but, to the contrary, on our gravel driveway quite some distance from any water source (or so the most recent EIS says - don't ask why there has been an EIS of our property!).

 

[GSDMan]

OMG! Trailer boat. Gawd, I feel stupid now. Sorry.

Jim

 

[Nemrod]

I believe, if I recall, the boat in question is a 21 footer, yes, most of us keep our boats on a trailer.

N

 

[Gilldiver]

You have a lot of good ideas here on how to clean and protect the fiberglass surfaces of your baby, but the best thing is to make sure you always have a good wax coating and to keep the sun off as much as possible. This will help keep the resin and gellcoat from chalking.

Also, if you ever have any divers do some any artifact recovery, try to keep them out of the boat on a swim platform. If you have to have them in side of the transom, then put them into a bucket.

Iron is real bad as there will be both Ferric Oxide (Iron III - Fe2O3) or red rust and Ferrous Oxide (Iron II - FeO) or Black Iron or Black Rust. You can clean Ferric Oxide fairly easily but will be scrubbing at Ferrous Oxide for a long time. If it gets into the non-slip areas you may have no choice but to compound it out. Ferrous Oxide is used as a black pigment and is in many inks, so just keep it out of the boat.