Baird reached out to Glidecoat to restore his 1998 Boston Whaler, a boat that he described as “used and abused beater coach boat.” Baird is a former Olympic Sailing Coach with decades of experience in the racing sailing and overall boating industry.
Baird’s 17’ Boston Whaler Montauk had seen heavy use in various yacht club’s beginning to advanced learn to sail programs, high school sailing programs and racing sailing regattas over two plus decades. Heavy use and abuse by many different sailing coaches, regatta crews and South Florida’s extreme weather over twenty plus years, had really worn the boat and it showed. It needed much more than a face lift. We put Baird in touch with Thomas Rideout of Rideout Detailing, who has years of experience “bringing boats back from the dead.”
Goals
- Clean and restore the boat’s heavily oxidized gelcoat to the original finish.
- Protect the restored finish to maintain the renewed shine.
- Make the vessel easier to clean and maintain moving forward.
- Owner
- Baird Lobree
- Manufacturer
- Boston Whaler, Edgewater, FL
- Length
- 17'
- Location
- Miami, FL
After more than 20 years of rigorous use during beginning to Olympic training exercises in the South Florida sun, the hull and topside gelcoat of this Boston Whaler was extremely faded and heavily oxidized, with stains throughout the vessel from rust and dirt build up. The majority of the glossmeter readings for the gelcoat surfaces were reading in the single digits.
In addition to the gelcoat surfaces, the metal needed polishing, the cushions and non-skid needed to be cleaned, and the engine casing needed to be polished.
Thomas Rideout and the team at Rideout Detailing visited the coach boat prior to beginning the job to take glossmeter readings and map out their path forward. After reviewing the readings, most of which were in the single digits, they knew that the jobs would require at least three buffing steps before applying the ceramic coating.
- The Rideout Detailing team started with multiple passes using a heavy cut compound to begin removing the oxidized gelcoat from the surface.
- Next, they followed up with a couple of passes with a medium cut compound to ensure the oxidation was fully removed and that the pores had been reduced.
- Once the compounding was complete, the team polished the surface with a finishing polish to ensure that the surface was glossy and uniform.
- The team also polished the metal, scrubbed the non-skid, and washed the cushions with a degreaser to remove stains.
- The team started by applying one coat of Glidecoat Marine Ceramic Coating to all of the gelcoat surfaces, as well as the metal and engine casing. They also applied a single coat of the Marine Ceramic Coating to the non-skid areas.
- After waiting an hour for the coating to begin the curing process, they then applied two coats of Glidecoat Pro Marine Ceramic Coating to the gelcoat, engine casing, and metal. They also applied two coats of Glidecoat Vinyl Ceramic Coating to the vinyl cushions.
