Iron staining and gelcoat sealers

My hobie 18 takes on a brown stain in my local lake. A day in Lake Erie brings it back to bright white. I assume my 1990 gelcoat is now more porous than it used to be, and is taking on an iron stain. I am looking for someone who has had a similar problem with iron staining. Has anyone spent time and money going through a bunch of fiberglass/gelcoat sealing products with so-so results, and come up with a clear winner.

I had that problem with my older boats and i have found keeping a good coat of wax keeps it from staining! Nu Finish is the brand i am using but i think any wax will work. we sail quite a bit all summer and i will wax 2-3 time a year. for stubborn stains i use toilet bowl cleaner. work great but wear gloves!!!!

I have tried most of the automotive types of wax, and I also decided nu-finish was one of the best of those. and wow,,I'm not wanting to rewax 3 times a year...
I find that we are in a unique situation, big boats use bottom paint and wet sand it to go fast..don't really care to cover my hull in bottom paint.....power boaters don't care about the slight drag created by a wax.
The staining is occurring in a definite pattern with some places on the hull consistently not staining or staining considerably less...and the brand new hobies don't stain....A guy has to be able to get back to that factory original surface somewhere short of a coat of epoxy paint. The paints have such a low film thickness that a beached cat will grind the keel paint off in very short order anyway..
Hmmmmmm Maybe I need a coat of the release agent they spray inside the molds when they are laying up the hulls. When you think about it that's really whats on the outside of a new boat hull.

Buff it out with this:




Then seal it with this:




Kind of like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74sEyot5A_o

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I use about 4 products to keep my boat clean:

For removing stains I use a product called Iron Out that comes in a powder. Its nasty stuff, but if you mix it right you pretty much wipe it on, let it sit, spray it off. Repeat if neccessary

For a wax I use Meguires cleaner wax in a paste and typically apply it using a Milwaukee 9" angle grinder using a 3M foam pad. Leaves a really nice slick finish.

In between waxings I use a product called Original Polish. Comes in a spray can, and used to be distibuted under the name "Honda Polish" and it was sold through Honda motorcycle dealerships. (Honda got sued and dropped their name, but its still available)

Lastly I use a silicone lube that comes in a spray can. I use it on the beams and mast. Spray them down, wipe em off, then apply wax over the top. Keeps everything black and shiny.

internet search Poly Glow and watch demo

I had already watched your buffing video that you linked me to...very impressive. I found that video just last month when I re-did the bottom and a few messy repairs on a yellow 18. After the yellow boat, I was already pretty convinced that the real problem on my white boat was also oxidation...It's just not as obvious on the white hull. Thank you for your opinion. I took your advice and ordered the hull kote too...I googled it and found a bunch of Laser racers who are devotees..and the Volvo Ocean Racers are using it. Sounds like a product that gives a lot of protection without sacrificing performance like some other options.....Where did you learn about it.....I will check back in with some kind of a report at the end of the season...
...

I'm in the thick of it sailing wise. I've made money professionally from sailing or in the marine industry for about 15 years now. I listen to what people have to say around the sailing circles, take it all in, try the stuff out myself, and form an opinion. The Perfectit 3 was shown to me by a guy who is probably one of the top glass guys in the US. I started using it and never went back to standard rubbing compound for the single reason that it saves so much time in an industrial setting. In my business, repairs at least, time is money.

The HullKote was shown to me by a guy that owns a Reigle Pugh 85, a Farr 40, a Melges 32, a J100, a stack of 5O5's, a couple of Aussie 18's, a pile of Optis and everything else in between. I tried it and was hooked.

As you can see from my videos, I actually use the products that I sell. I don't like selling things that I don't like or know about. So I always try to make an effort to learn about different products.

Let me know what YOU think. There are so many variables that it's hard to win em all, but those two products will solve a lot of oxidation/ gelcoat porosity issues. It might take 2 rounds with the buffing depending on how bad it is. And keep the bonnet clean, and keep it cool while buffing. If your gelcoat is really bad it might take some wetsanding first, but that's more like work

Good luck!

J

Can you use the 3M Perfectit 3 with a Buffer rather than a angle grinder? Or does it need the higher RPM? Also is it a paste or a powder?

Thanks

I'm not sure what your experiencing is "Iron Staining" ... if you were on the Chesapeake we call that "Chesapeake Grunge" .... one or two days of sailing you have a brown boat (Mine is suppose to be Ferro White).

I've been told its a bacteria in the water .... who knows, but FSR/Davis Instruments takes it right off. Its a "blue" gel you smear on w/ a sponge, rub around alittle when applying then rinse off. It's active ingrediant is "oxsilic acid" .... same stuff as in "Tang" the drink the astronauts drink ... make a slurry of Tang ... rub on ... wait a minute or two and rinse off .... it also works but FSR much work better.

You will need to re-wax the hull after using FSR .... since Jeremy ALWAYS knows what he's doing I would use the sealers/waxes he recommends.

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HarryMurphey
H-18 mag/ #9458
Fleet 54 Div 11

Here is a useful fact for all you sailors out there.. Have used this alot through my sailing life...
You only cut and buff your boat like once every season at the most so a useful way of keeping the iodine staining off your boats is as simple as going to your orange or lemon tree maybe line i have not used lime.. But the citric acid removes the staining.. Also if it is a little worse than that will remove pool acid but you must watch your concentrate on this one dont use anything that has more than a 30% concentration and then i would still dilute this 30% again with water, when using this please use appropriate Personal Protective Equipment and use only in a well ventilated area...
Then wash off with soapy water then polish
I love using the oranges especially on a hot day for some reason the boat only ends up half done and i run out of oranges...

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JonJay Kersh
Team Australia
Hobie 18's

I use Gel-Gloss available at local hardware store. http://www.idealtruevalue.com/servlet/the-49614/Detail It works well for me. Just rub on, let dry and wipe off. Easy Peasy.

JonJay,

I'd forgotten about this method!

I didn't believe it until I tried it at the 2006 20 NAC's. Was margarita night and limes abounded, so I grabbed a couple and headed to the beach to try it on the rust stains that had been on my rudders since they day I bought the boat.

Amazing, works as good as that Instant Clean stuff you get at Wally World.

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www.fleet297.org
sailflatlands at gmail dot com

Try the Walmart products STARBRITE spray on stain remover and their STARBRITE PTFE polish ,,, works for me in the Dallas area ...

Jaws

I recently had a good mid-week day and took my boat, now with the PORT hull wet sanded with 400 grit and then buffed out with 3M super duty buffing compound, and then covered with McLube Hull-kote, to the problem lake...It stayed clean..
..However, the stain had faded to almost nothing on the STARBOARD hull and I decided to try to shortcut the process ( I hurt my right shoulder skiing last winter ) and only buffed it with the 3M super duty and then covered it with the McLube Hull-kote...the stain re-appeared, except in a long thin line that was a scratch that I had pre-sanded and filled with some new gel-coat. fyi , that area was never recovered with McLube..it was clean both on the gel-coat line and the sanded area around the repair..Therefore I must conclude that the SANDING is the key element..
I am even today in the process of wet-sanding the brown area of the starboard hull with 1000 grit this time... I have only made it to the shroud, and am considering stopping there, buffing the entire area and only covering half of the buffed area with McLube to see if the sanding and buffing alone are truely, the key to warding off the staining..
I have suspected for some time now, that it is the oxidized layer on the surface of the hull that is picking up the stain, and that up to now I have been using various products to get rid of the stain and then waxing that still oxidized absorbtive layer, trying to keep it from re-absorbing the stain...
Jeremy of Surf City catamarans put me on the right track ..my oxidation was just too much for the 3m super duty buffing compound I was using, to remove ( it says right on the bottle, its best use is for removing 1000 grit sanding marks) by the way Meguiars medium cut was too wimpy also.
I like the idea of getting the boat stained, and then using that stain as a sanding guide as to how much you need to get into it, to get where you need to be. By the way, in all this messing around, I have done so many gel-coat repairs that I am absolutely sure I am working in the top 5% of the gel coat thickness...don't be scared to hit yours with the 400 or even heavier paper if that's what it takes, ..of course you have to re-sand with finer and finer paper and finish up by buffing out the surface. I am sure you will want to seal the finished surface, when you are done...I also still like the idea of the Mclube Hull-Kote I don't think it will keep my staining away, but then none of the car waxes did either...and I don't put car wax on the bottom of my skis, why should I be putting it on my boat hull. they both run on a film of water, and need specific formulation to work well..I may try the starbrite the last writer suggested,, I'm always ready to learn...Thank you all for your postings. I'm still experimenting, and will post again.