JEANNEAU CAP CAMARAT
Plenty of polish and slathers of elbow grease work wonders on a tired hull
A new lease of life
Occasional scratches aside,
Kipper’s topsides are restored
to their former green gloryWe used the heavy
compound and wax
and got great resultsThe hull of my Jeanneau Cap Camarat
6.5 WA, Kipper, has a hard life. Living
on a swing mooring with a tonneau
cover for protection, the topsides are
exposed to sun, wind, rain and spray
during the season with no way of
giving them a proper wash on a
regular basis. Mix in the odd scrape
from the viciously spiky pier where
I often collect guests, and it’s safe
to say the offer from 3M to send
someone down to treat the hull
with its new range of polish and wax
couldn’t have come at a better time.
The new products are part of 3M’s
Gelcoat Finishing System and include
a boat wash, two compounds for
medium or heavy oxidisation, a polishfor less major degradation, and a
wax. All of them have been designed
specifically for gelcoat and claim to
stay wetter for longer on the pad so
you spend less time reapplying and
more time elbow-greasing. Polishing
a hull is a strenuous enough task
at the best of times, so anything that
makes it even a little bit easier sounds
good to me.
Marc from 3M came down to
the yard with a treasure chest of
polishers, sanders, pads and bottles
of product in the boot of his car.
Given the level of the hull fade,
despite the attempts at a wash/cut/
wax treatment of my own using
products from the local chandlery,Jack gets to work applying the
heavy compound to a section
of Kipper’s topside, followed
by a wax to seal in the shineThe unpolished side (left)
is dull and chalky; the polished
side (right) is rich and glossyonce-over with the wax to get the
best finish possible on the old girl
in the time we had.
We only spent the morning
completing the work with a pair
of polishers but the end result was
remarkable. We could have done
two rounds of compound polishing to
boost the result but the improvement
was so marked from our starting
point that it wasn’t deemed necessary
given the little scuffs and scrapes that
will have to be treated by a gelcoat
specialist at some point anyway.
True testament to the quality
of the 3M products is the fact that
the process was no different during
my previous polishing attempt.
I had washed, cut, polished and
waxed but the result didn’t even
come close, as you can see in the
before and after pictures.
It’s not cheap – the 946ml bottle
of heavy compound retails at £30
and we got through a fair bit of it –
but Kipper now looks (almost) as
good as when she emerged from
the factory nearly 20 years ago,
and I look forward to showing her
off in what is hopefully going to be
a great season. Jack Haines
Email [email protected]
for more informationMarc opted to use the most potent
heavy-cutting compound. It’s always
interesting to see how professionals
use the products, and the first useful
tip was to apply the compound
directly on to the machine polisher’s
pad and use this, in the locked
position, to spread the liquid around
on the boat’s hull. It saves you having
to switch tools too often and means
you can spread a generous amount
of compound without it spraying
everywhere when the pad starts
spinning. The boat’s hull was already
perfectly clean from my polishing
attempt so there was no need to
use the boat wash on this occasion.
There is no pro tip to avoid the next
bit though, which is getting stuck in
and working the compound into the
hull with the orbital polisher. It’s hard
work, but the added lubrication of
this compound does at least mean
that you’re not stopping and starting
too often and can get a good portion
of the topside done without reloading
the pad.
In another bid to save time, the
medium compound and light polish
include a wax in the formula that
leaves a shiny sealed coating and
saves a step in the process on hulls
that aren’t badly faded. On Kipper,
we needed the concentrated heavy
compound to restore the badly faded
coloured gelcoat, and a separateBOAT MASTER OURB OATS