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I'm sure I ask about washing/waxing every season. But it's no longer optional. If I put my X in this year without a wash & wax they'll mistake it for a garbage scow and scuttle it outside the harbour. Never mind grey - parts of it are green!

It's almost certainly too late to get it done professionally - they'll be all booked up cleaning everyone's dock queens. So...


Washing:
I guess I have no choice but to buy a(nother) power washer. (I buy one every few years, and they blow out and stop working). Maybe I can borrow a washer from my club but they will likewise be all booked up.

Waxing:
This is the thing I worry about. I don't want to "just apply a little elbow grease". I need that elbow grease to keep my elbow working! But I guess I have little choice. I'm gonna need one of those two-handed buffers, right? Ugh.

Any advice to make it go easier?


A local detailer will do it on-site for $600. Although the real cost is how much hazing I'll surely get from everyone at my club (it's a "self help" club - which means it's all workin' folk - no pipes, jackets or ascots).

If it’s worth $600 to you to save your elbow, and all of the other buffing muscles and joints that you don’t normally exercise, I’d spend the money. The hazing won’t last long when you’re sailing and they are still buffing and sweating, and taking Advil.

Not a fan of power washing unless it’s pretty bad. But, standing on a soapy deck with a long handled brush is not all that smart either. Maybe a garden sprayer with some chemical (jomax, etc if it’s really bad), and then just a light brush and hose it off good.

Be careful. And, who cares what they think about how you get it waxed? For goodness sake man, you have a Mac. Your hide should be as thick as a rhino’s from all the Mac hazing.

For goodness sake man, you have a Mac. Your hide should be as thick as a rhino’s from all the Mac hazing.

Well said Jimmy

If the work is worth $600 to you, then go for it.

Jimmyt wrote: ↑Mon Apr 10, 2023 3:08 pm For goodness sake man, you have a Mac. Your hide should be as thick as a rhino’s from all the Mac hazing.

$600 for a cleaning sounds like a lot to me...but then I'm just old enough to remember when a Hershey bar about the size of a skateboard was 5¢. If you have electric power in the boat lot or a semi-decent 1,500 watt or better generator, I'm a big fan of that little Harbor Freight PORTLAND 1750 PSI 1.3 GPM Corded Electric Pressure Washer that are on sale right now for the pre-Covids price of just $69.99. I've been nursing along its only slightly weaker 1,700 psi predecessor model for damned near a decade, and must say that it's just exactly the right amount of "weakly craptastic" for boat and vehicle cleaning without the least risk of blasting off the gel or clear coat. And with a bit of patience it will also scrub a deck clean. Also, instead of spending a bunch on overpriced maritime wonder goops and cleansing potions, just raid the laundry room for some Wisk brand laundry detergent. Ask for it by name, as it's truly a wonder substance long beloved by boaters in the know far and wide for removing those cruds. Just fill up the sprayer bottle in that pressure washer and suds up the rig, allow to stand 15 minutes, and then blast her clean. As for the wax on-wax off portion of your crud combat training, "Horror Fright" again comes to your wallet's rescue with their DRILL MASTER 1 Amp 10 in. Random Orbital Polisher/Buffer for just $24.99. As for the wax, I like that pricier Collinite paste brand for the major "spiffyings up", but will also touch up from time to time with whatever's on hand, like Meguilar's or some 3M boat wax that I snagged on closeout for like a buck a bottle when the local Gander Mountain went belly up. So basically, for under a hundred bucks you can easily handle this without sending your elbow one-way to Gimpytown.

So:

• Got it done. Took 4 hours. Did a great job. Boat's so bright gotta wear shades.
• $590 was worth it by mentally amortizing it over, like, the 15 years I never waxed it.
• I wasn't the only one at the club even *today* getting my boat professionally cleaned.
• Gonna see how much to do the interior. That'll require a few hours of emptying then repacking below.

15 years!! Yea, it was worth it.

Eggs used to be 55 cents for 12 of'em - with the case.

Bilgemaster wrote: ↑Fri Apr 14, 2023 7:33 am $600 for a cleaning sounds like a lot to me...but then I'm just old enough to remember when a Hershey bar about the size of a skateboard was 5¢.