How to Clean & Wax a Boat Finish

There isn't a boat that won't benefit from a wash and wax.

"There is nothing -- absolute nothing -- half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats." These words, in Kenneth Grahame's novel "The Wind in the Willows," frequently echo the thoughts of boaters who take immense pleasure in the simple tasks of maintaining their vessel. When you wash your boat, you're doing more than giving it a bath, you're removing the leftovers from its last voyage. Done properly, the coat of wax you apply not only makes your boat gleam in the sunlight, it protects the fragile finish from the ravages that exposure to sunlight and water bring.

Things You'll Need

• Liquid dish soap
• Water
• 5-gallon bucket
• Clean rags
• Chamois
• Paste wax
• Orbital buffer

Instructions

1. Mix 1 cup of liquid dish soap with each gallon of water in a 5-gallon bucket. Dip a clean rag into the soap and water and raise it to the top of the port bow of the boat at the boat's stem -- the uppermost part of the forward edge of the left side of the boat.

2. Move the rag in a counterclockwise circle on the surface of the boat. Continue to move the rag in counterclockwise circles, washing from the top of the side to the bottom. As you reach the bottom center of the boat hull -- the keel -- move slightly toward the rear of the boat, move the rag back to the top of the side, and wash from top to bottom, continuing this pattern until you are about 3 feet rearward of the point where you started on the port side.

3. Rinse the part of the boat you have soaped, with a garden hose. Re-soap the rag and continue washing, from top to bottom in 3-foot-long stages, rinsing after each stage, until you have reached the rear of the boat -- the stern. Continue across the stern washing from port to starboard, top to bottom, until you reach the starboard side of the stern. Wash the starboard side from top to bottom, moving forward toward the bow, in 3-foot segments, rinsing each segment as you go.

4. Dry any wet or damp spots on the entire hull with a chamois. Move to the forward point of the port bow, open the paste wax, and use the included applicator pad to apply the wax to the port side using overlapping circular strokes, working from top to bottom and from the bow to the stern. Wax across the stern from port to starboard and wax the starboard side from the stern to the bow.

5. Allow the wax to dry to a white powdery coat. Buff the wax with an orbital buffer, from port bow to port stern, across the stern and from the starboard stern to the starboard bow, using circular motions.

Tips & Warnings

• Do not wax brightwork, the unpainted wood trim on your boat; rather, saturate a rag with teak oil and wipe a thin coat of oil onto the cleaned wood, disposing of the rag in a covered metal trashcan.

References

• BoatUS Boat Tech: Teak Care