Brown stains

I keep a boat on the Elk River in Maryland. Everytime I use it a brown stain appears. It cleans off easily with FSR, I wax it, but the stain comes back. Any suggestions?

Where does the stain appear? Hulls? Sail? Trampoline?

The active ingredient in FSR is Oxalic acid. Cheaper to buy the stuff at a chemical supply house. The acid is opening and cleaning the pours in the gelcoat. You need to seal the pours with a wax, a good buffer and hard work. The alge in the water is what is causing the stain. More wax, less stain, so a couple of coats couldn't hurt.

How long does the boat sit before the stains appear? Are you leaving it in the water for an extended period? I agree with Hammond, but if you are leaving it in the water for extended periods of time you might want to paint the keels up to the waterline with a teflon bottom paint rather than just rely on layers of wax (check West Marine products for stuff like this, also for polishes and wax)

The only brown stains I ever get are in my shorts when I pitchpole

Good luck

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The fact that this windy world is largely covered in water obviously means that man was meant to sail.

Try this before spending a lot of money.

Buy a can of Bon Ami for $1 at a grocery store.

It got a rust stain and lot of slim off my Hobie 17 and didn't mess up my expensive graphics.

Doug
[email protected]

Maybe you should take it easy and stop scaring yourself when you sail.
















Sorry. Couldn't resist.

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Warm regards,

Jim

Hey there! long time no "see" You beat me to the brown stains comment

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The fact that this windy world is largely covered in water obviously means that man was meant to sail.