Beauty is skin deep

Doing the hull this year has been the least work it's eveer been and it is looking pretty much as good as it's ever done.

Last year iit got a good going over that has lasted welll. Before waxing it this year the was some matting of the surface - on the port side that has been the sunny side all summer for the last five seasons - but not that much. It got a wash over with yacht cleaner and then a good going over with TCnano Gelcoat Protection (loosely translated). - The 'wonder wax' we bought last year. Wipe it on.. Allow to dry and polish off... Standard stuff.

But - the results are good. After one coat there was still some sign of the matting but the rest of the hulll looked great. Two coats for an all over shine you can see your face in, and a third for good measure to hopefully last through to next year.

So hull sorted, and onto the deck - which missed out on a good clean last year. The pale colour is more forgiving but the surface was flat and dead looking with plenty of small dark sooty flecks - not to mention lots of grubby marks around the cockpit.

A rummage round the car and the cockpit lockers failed to find
any polish so it was another trip to the marina chandlers to see what'd do the job. After a few minutes reading the various jars, my horoscope, and the dregs in the coffee cup I plumped for something by Turtle Wax.

It turned out to be a thick pink liquid with a smell not unlike 'Windowlene'. Another rub on, wait, rub off product. And this too seems to really do what it says on the tin - well, plastic bottle. Some of the marks in the cockpit needed elbow grease to fix but the rest rubbed up easily.

Of course - it is just a polish, so once the hull had it's sheen back it was out wiith the TCnano to seal and protect the surface.

The only thing now is we need to watch out on the deckhouse roof. It's slippery!

(The photo shows where the control lines come though the coaming to a plate forward of the hatch - currently demounted for varnishing)