Getaway rudders

I used the search feature in this forum and nothing turned up. So if the inquiry is repetitive, apologies in advance. What I'd like to do is paint or coat the rudders on my 2004 getaway I bought last fall. The surface of them seems porous and they easily stain with any muddy/brackish water contact which we have plenty of on the Gulf shores of Texas. So my questions are, what are they made of, what is the best product to apply to them and are there any special procedures that need to be followed other than the manufacturer's requirements? Thanks for all help.

Before trying to coat them with something, try a power washer. The plastic should clean easily with a powerwash.

_________________
R/Thom
SeaRail 19
Triak
BMW C600
Formerly Getaway with Custom Spinnakers
Formerly raced F24 Mk II

The rudders are Nylon.

https://www.wikihow.com/Clean-Plastic

Cutting boards seem to be made with Nylon... found this one: Forget expensive detergents and cleaners and use lemon or lemon essential oil instead to return your hard-working cutting boards to their former glory!

_________________
Matt Miller
Former - Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Warranty and Technical Support
Hobie Cat USA
(Retired 11/7/2022)

Thanks guys for the tips. I have actually had great luck with my small SunJoe electric pressure washer. With the 15* tip, it makes short work of bringing them back to gleaming white with no detergents needed for those results. Only tap water. I was just hoping that there was a way to repel the staining since sometimes, I leave the boat at our local yacht club for a couple weeks at times to avoid repetitious rig/re-rig, mast/de-masting, trailering, etc. that comes along with bringing it home after each use. I'm guessing by your responses that it might be easier to leave my pressure washer at the club during those times? I'm probably being overly picky about aesthetics but I worry about it becoming permanently brown lol. I liken it to those old denture commercials where they dip the white porcelain into the tea and instantly they come out with a definitive stain line.

You could try Zep floor polish. Reportly keeps algae off of worn gel coat.

FWIW, Some cutting boards are polyethylene. Same base material of Dyneema.

_________________
1998 Wave
2004 Getaway
Former-Hobie 16

As an ex- Hobie 16 and Hobie 18 racer, we used to wetsand our rudders with nothing coarser than 800 grit to increase the laminar flow. (It made the hulls and rudder slipperier) A side benefit to doing that was it sure cleaned up any discoloration.

As an ex- Hobie 16 and Hobie 18 racer, we used to wetsand our rudders with nothing coarser than 800 grit to increase the laminar flow. (It made the hulls and rudder slipperier) A side benefit to doing that was it sure cleaned up any discoloration.