How to Clean a Boat

By January 12, 2016 General No Comments

Owning a boat is one of life’s great pleasures. It gives you to freedom to explore the open seas, to get away from the crowd and the noise on land. While owning a boat is a pleasure, it’s also a considerable investment. Most people shell out thousands of dollars to purchase a good boat. Naturally, it’s important to maintain it well. If you want your boat to last for several years and continue to function well, you should learn how to clean a boat. Our boat detailing experts here at Freedom Yacht Services suggest you follow the process written below.

1 – Rinse

The first order of business is to remove the fine layer of dust, grime and dirt from the boat. The best way to do that is to rinse it with clean water. This is just the first step, so you don’t need any special equipment. If you have a pressure washer, great! If not, a normal hose would do. Just wash from top to bottom.

2 – Soap

The next step is to address the more stubborn grime and dust. You should use good quality boat soap for this purpose. When you’re applying soap, be careful not to let it dry on the surface. That can damage the finish and harm the boat. That’s why it’s a good idea to work on one small area at a time. Scrub the soap in to agitate the grime before rising it off thoroughly. It’s a good idea to handle a small section at a time.

3 – Buffing 

By this point, you’ve removed most of the dirt and grime from the surface of the boat. Your boat should look much better, but the surface would still be dull. You need to buff the surface and remove the oxidation. That would also prepare the surface for waxing, which is the next step in this guide on how to clean a boat. You can buff by hand or use a rotary buffer. Just keep the buffing even.

4 – Waxing

We recommend that you use a wax that’s especially designed for boats. These waxes are formulated keeping increased contact with water in mind. Waxing will not only make your boat shine like it’s new, but it will also protect it. If you wax well and wax thoroughly, you’ll have to detail the boat less often as the boat would be protect from grime and debris. It’s a good idea to focus on small areas and maintain a steady pace until the entire boat has a coating of wax.

This is how to clean a boat exterior. Once you’ve finished that, you should detail the interior. That would extend the life of your boat.

If you want to know more about how to clean a boat, feel free to get in touch with us at Freedom Yacht Services. You can call at our Ft. Lauderdale office on 954 732 8916 or our Palm Beach office on 954 610 757. You can also fill in this contact us form and we’ll reply as soon as we can.