Waxes/Polishes

If your boat is Awlgripped, either traditional or Awlcraft, you should use nothing but Awl-wash soap on it and Awl-care. It greatly extends the life of awlgrip and it's shine.

That being said. I like Aquatech boat soap to wash the boat. Rejex polymer as a polish/wax. Those are my go to items. I own a yacht management business in South Florida.

I went a different way about 8 years ago and used Carpro's CQuartz. It's one of those ceramic coatings. I've done it on 2 boats so far and am more than pleased with it. I find the protection and gloss superior to anything else I've used by far. The first application is expensive as the liquid fills the pores on gelcoat. Subsequent applications use 1/2 or less. I also find buffing subsequent years easier. We buff with a Rupes BigFoot and CarPro Essense, which is a finishing polish. That's all I need. Occasionally I find a spot that needs something a little more aggressive but it's minor.

I tried Rejex years ago on an older trawler I had, but it didn't do much for the diesel soot problem. Maybe it was my application? Maintaining the CQuartz is easy and black streaks/soot come of pretty easily - much more so than anything I've used. Another company makes a specific gelcoat product now that I haven't tried.

How difficult was the initial prep and application using the CQuartz ?

Prep is the same as any wax, but more important. Whatever you use, you need to get the hull as close to perfect as you can. It might be a bit more effort but you'll not have to go that hard each year for a while.

My prep was to use Imperial Compound, and then the Carpro Essense. Essense is, like I said, a minor abrasive but is also has silica in it. Almost like a cleaner wax but the "wax" part is silica/quartz so it's durable. You'll notice the difference. The first time we applied Essence, my son and I had to continually stop and admire the gloss. It was unbelievable.

The say if you use Essence you can go straight to CQuartz. I think that holds true for cars, but with the time it takes to buff the boat, dust is a problem so I wipe the boat down with CarPro Erasor (any IPA wipe will do). It just gets rid of dust or any contaminant. I buff the whole hull, then IPA wipe one side and CQuartz it, repeat on the other side then go back to the first for a second coat. After a few years, I only do one coat.

Applying CQuartz is easy, just wipe on, wait for it to flash and wipe off. it takes some practice though. start in less obtrusive spots. At first, the quartz will simple absorb instantly, leaving nothing behind. You'll have to go over it a couple times until you see it wet and then it flashes and you give it a wipe to level off the extra. Flash time depends on the conditions, as little as a minute, as long as 3-4. You'll learn it pretty quickly and there's lots of videos. I will say that its more obvious on a dark color car than a white hull!

I finish up with a coating of Reload. There are a ton of topping products that extend the life of the ceramic coatings, Reload is Carpro's. I spray it on one cloth, wipe on, then wipe off with another.

Every 4-6 weeks I refresh it. I use a product called HydroFoam from them. It's the same stuff as Reload but has soap in it. I have a couple pressure washers built in to the boat, so I attach a foam cannon and foam up the section (that's fun), scrub, rinse and dry.

I've also found reload to be the best product for my vinyl and lexan windows and stamoid. I had white stamoid windows for 5 years on my last boat and they looked brand new when I sold it.

Thanks, I have heard these quartz coating work well .

I tend to view most "Miracle" products with a lot of skepticism, so I did a little looking around on the ceramic coating thing and came up with an interesting YouTube comparison test done by real amateurs with some good methodology HERE.
They marked off squares on the removed hood ("bonnet", to some) of a car and applied a number of different products on it. They park it outside in the sun and other weather elements, then come by once in a while and give it a rinse.. Surprising results, including remarkably long lasting performance by a low-line product that's been languishing on my shelf (NuFinish). Capt J's often recommended Collinite 845 Insulator Wax is on there, and so is Xpel, Cquartz, and more.'A few years ago, the guy that I had washing a boat I ran spent a few weeks on a yacht getting the hard water deposits off the glass on the yacht. After that, he applied the Xpel. Must have cost thousands. I still wonder if that paid off.
The same guy used to apply wax on my guy's yacht with a crew. I noticed that these junior chemists were creating some kind of home-grown polish by mixing a number of different name-brand products. These guys told me that the sludge they mixed up was far superior to anything that 3M or Meguiar's had ever come up with. I promptly forbade them from using any product unless it was strictly according to the manufacturer's instructions. Then, to prove a point, I gathered the Material Safety Data Sheets for a number of marine wax products, and found that they were essentially all Carnauba wax with a thinner (mineral spirits, mostly) to make a paste or liquid. Carnauba is some kind of sap that's on the leaves of a particular palm frond, grown mostly in Brazil. They thrash the flaky wax off the fronds, collect, thin, and filter it. Sometimes it's whitened, like Insulator Wax, often left the brownish natural color. Not much excitement in those MSDS', as it turns out.
We've all heard the arguments about marine coatings being application specific, and all that, but at the end of the day, we're applying products to plastic paints or plastic gel-coat. The big differences are that yachts don't often get garaged, and cars don't often have salt crystals on their finishes. Then, there is the guano factor.

Due to the cost of the Ceramic coatings and the fact that it only lasts 2-3 years (maximum). I have a hard time justifying it except in a few circumstances. Praetorian 47, I'm sure your yacht looks great, but it makes me tired just reading all of the steps and work to "polish" a boat. I cannot imagine the amount of man hours you put into it.

I don't use any carnuba products on gelcoat anymore or my own car, just stick to the polishes......rejex on yachts, meguiars ultimate polish on my vehicle.

Collinite 870.
Works well and lasts a longtime.
Just did my boat with it .
Hull only . See my last pictures on the rubrail post.
Wax on / wax off. Works on gelcoat or painted surfaces .
My hull is Awlgrip 7 years old .
It cleans up well with the 870.

We no longer use wax on paint. Have been using Meguiars M20 for years. Easy on and off and last about 6 months in Florida. Last year I bought some Si02 silica spray detailer to try on some exposed areas until getting the boat detailed. It is a wipe on wipe off easy to apply and also lasted about 6 months. Can be used as a stand alone sealant that last as long as traditional sealants or wax. Used the Si02 spray on the hull while in the yard and still beading water good after 2 1/2 months. Thinking it would also be perfect to use on the hull between haul outs while in the water. Worth trying, you do need a good clean surface to start with. Works good on glass too.

I have had really good luck with Star Brite Spider & Bird Stain remover in the green bottle.
Does not remove wax.
Works well on vehicles too
Link:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EXIVYQE?tag=duckduckgo-d-20&linkCode=osi&th=1&psc=1

When washing with Awlgrip. The Awlwash soap is very good and really a must if you want to preserve shine long term, but also use Z cleaner (similar to rolloff) when washing, spray the black streak, after a minute or two brush and rinse off...….try the Awlcare product made by awlgrip for protecting the paint...…..go to Awlgrips website and look at care and maintenance and it has a lot of tips and good info.

Been using rejex for 2.5 years on painted custom carolina sportfish. We also use on all shiny metal like rubrails and riggers. Anything smooth will benefit from it. We reapply once a year. Goes on just like wax. Must be applied to smooth surface, if paint or gelcoat is chalky compound first. Wash with there soap before applying, removes waxes that prevent it from properly adhering. It's been a game changer for us. I'm even putting it on glass( truck and house) it's like long lasting rainx. One gallon will do 60' boat twice.

I use Meguiars Deep Crystal car wash in the purple bottle . Works well , does not remove wax. Get it at the automotive store.
Spray nine and roll off sparingly where needed .
I like Chesapeake 46 black streak remover suggestion. I will try that.

The description of my process seems a lot of work, but it's actually less effort than traditional buffing and waxing. Subsequent years are much easier!

Cost of having somebody to a ceramic coating is crazy expensive, but it's not hard to do it myself. I use about 150-200ml per year now, at about $100/50ml. It's not cheap but lasts longer and makes washing easier all summer.

With my son, we can buff and cquartz the entire hill in about 8 hours now. The superstructure takes a bit longer just because it's more difficult to get to everywhere.