When you’ve invested in the boat of your dreams, you want to keep your new watercraft in good shape for as long as possible. Boat detailing is an essential part of boat maintenance because the process gives the boat added protection against the elements. You don’t want to trust any amateur with such an important task! That’s why it’s important to be familiar with the process, so you can spot quality yacht detailing when you see it.
Florida is an ideal location for boating and it has a thriving boating community that’s very active and likes to stay connected. So it’s not really surprising that the state plays host to several boat shows throughout the year. A yachting enthusiast’s calendar can be pretty full, especially if they choose to attend all the boating events in the state.
A new yacht always looks great and well-put together. The paint is fresh, the flooring and accessories are clean, and the engine is purring like a kitten. However, this new shine won’t last long unless you maintain your boat well. Here are #5 Tips on How to Detail Your Vessel – Freedom Yacht Services.
Whether you have a new yacht or an old one, you want to keep it looking clean and shiny. For that, you need to clean it regularly. However, cleaning a boat isn’t as easy as it sounds. You need to put in some effort and time into cleaning it as thoroughly as you can. The salt from the sea and the dust can accumulate overtime and damage your boat.
If you want to extend the life of the yacht, you need to wash and clean it every time you take it for a spin. Of course, most people don’t really have the time to clean their boats thoroughly. In such cases, they need to call in professional boat cleaning services in Fort Lauderdale, FL.
Professional cleaners know how to handle the boats and are very thorough. They make sure that there’s little to no salt or debris left on the yacht. While you might miss something or get tired and skip some areas, professionals will not. However, you need to hire the right professionals for the job. At Freedom Yacht Services, we recommend that you take the following steps to find the right company to clean your boat.
Consider Your Requirements
It’s always a good idea to cultivate a relationship with one boat service provider instead of trying to engage different providers for different services. Your yacht has several maintenance requirements that go beyond cleaning. You need to keep that in mind when you start looking for service providers.
The first thing you need to do is consider your requirements. Your boat needs regular cleaning but it also needs detailing and maintenance. It would be more convenient if you hire a company that offers both cleaning and detailing. These two are regular maintenance steps that you need to take to extend the life of your boat.
You might also want to consider the location of the company and whether you need a boat pick-up and drop-off service as well. There are several companies that offer boat cleaning services in Fort Lauderdale, FL but not many that do a thorough and professional job.
Ask Friends and Fellow Sailors
Your best source for information about boat cleaning services is your fellow sailors. You can look for sailors that have a clean, well-maintained boat and ask them about the company their hire for the job. Personal recommendations will almost always lead you towards great cleaning services.
Your fellow sailors have seen the service providers work and know how they operate. You can also clearly see the results of their efforts on the cleaned yacht. Asking your friends and fellow sailors would decrease the likelihood of you making the wrong choice.
Research
Even though you have recommendations from friends, you should investigate the boat cleaning services in Fort Lauderdale, FL further. After all, if you make a bad decision here, you could risk damage to your boat. You should research the companies that your friends recommended.
These companies will have online reviews, testimonials, and ratings on sites like Yelp and Google+. You should also visit their website and look at the kind of services they provide. You can gauge whether they’ll be able to fulfill your requirements.
Call the Cleaning Service Provider
The final step is to call or meet the service provider. You make a list of concerns and questions and ask. When you call them, you’ll get some idea about how well they communicate and how responsive they are. You should also hire boat cleaning services in Fort Lauderdale, FL that communicate well and have solid customer service. That would prove to be helpful in the future.
If you keep these points in mind, you’ll be able to hire the right cleaning service. After all, your boat is very expensive and needs careful attention. Choosing the wrong company can have serious consequences.
If you want to know more about boat cleaning services in Fort Lauderdale, FL, 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.
Owning a boat is a great luxury, as it opens several doors to so many adventures – especially in Florida! Here, it is boat-season all year-round, and the innumerous canals of Fort Lauderdale offer a great alternative to salt-water lovers. The Everglades – home to the largest subtropical wilderness in the United States – is also frequently visited by those who wish to spot the Florida manatees, American crocodiles, and Florida panthers. Those who still prefer the salt-water life, the East Coast offers endless exotic places for you to visit, such as the Florida Keys, Miami Beach, Fort Lauderdale Beach, and more.
The ideas mentioned above sound fun and all, until it’s time to go back and everyone enters your boat with muddy feet from the Florida swamps, and sandy feet from one of the beautiful beaches! And it doesn’t matter how prepared you always are, we all have that one friend that forgets to bring towels, that gets a little too drunk, or that can’t handle a bumpy boat ride… And just like that, all your efforts to keep your boat clean and neat are gone! Now you have mud and sand all over your carpet, and just the thought of having to clean everything thereafter drives you crazy!
Carpet cleaning can be tricky and somewhat challenging, and carpet cleaning services can sometimes be inconvenient and costly… Now, imagine on a boat, right?? Well, thankfully Freedom Yacht Services are always there to help you! For years, Freedom has been boat detailing Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach, and South Florida, providing the best yacht cleaning services – including carpet cleaning services – to ensure you always have the best boating experience.
How to Clean Carpet on a Boat?
The best way to keep your boat in pristine condition is to regularly maintain and detail it. Freedom Yacht Services offers a variety of services that helps keep your boat ready for whatever, whenever. So, we can definitely vouch for this one! A proper boat carpet cleaning service starts with the right products and cleaning supplies – and Freedom Yacht Services only applies high-quality cleaning products that have been tested and proven to remove stains, goo, and any other difficult to remove substance from your carpet, as well as cushions and other fabric materials.
For the courageous ones – the DIY lovers – Freedom Yacht Services listed a few steps to properly clean carpet on a boat:
- Dock Your Boat: The first step for a proper boat carpet cleaning should be to dock your boat; that way you can easily remove the drain plug.
- Vacuum the Carpet: Using a heavy-duty vacuum cleaner helps you remove all the little particles and loose dirt from your carpet.
- Soak the Carpet: Starting from the front of your boat, hose the carpet thoroughly – especially in the stain areas.
- Apply Cleaning Products: Now that you have read our blogs and were able to pick the best cleaning products in the market, soak your boat carpet in the cleaning solutions you have.
- Brush it and Scrub it: Self-explanatory. This is when you bring your A-game, and put those arms to work!
- Rinse it and Dry it: Again, self-explanatory! After you are done scrubbing all those annoying spots out of your carpet, rinse it with plenty of water then dry it as best as you can. A heavy-duty vacuum should also be able to suck the water up from your boat carpet, leaving it just slightly damp. The sun should be able to take care of the rest for you!
- Brush it and Fluff it: Once your boat carpet is dry, brush it against the grain and fluff it in order to make it look brand-new again!
As we have mentioned, boat carpet cleaning services can be quite challenging, due to the many steps and details involved in it. When it comes to boat carpet cleaning, every corner someone cuts will most likely become a bigger issue in the future. This is the reason why Freedom Yacht Services suggests you thoroughly detail your boat at least 3-4 times a year. At the same time, we could save you the hassle of finding and buying the best cleaning products in the market, docking your vessel, and then performing the job yourself!
For the best yacht detailing and boat carpet cleaning services in Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach, and South Florida, contact Freedom Yacht Services. We also offer boat plans involving boat maintenance, mobile detailing services for boats, carpet cleaning services, and more. Visit us today in one of our offices, or call us in Fort Lauderdale – 954 732 8916 and Palm Beach – 954 610 7571 for the best boat carpet cleaning and yacht services in South Florida.
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.
If you want to extend the life of your boat and ensure it works well, you need to maintain it well. There are several boat owners that are lax when it comes to maintenance. That doesn’t just make the boat look dirty and old, but also damages it. Needless to say, regular maintenance is important and detailing is an important part of that maintenance.
Unfortunately, at Freedom Yacht Services, we have observed that most people forgo detailing and just settle for a rinse. That is mostly because detailing can be a hassle. You need to transport your yacht to the service provider’s location or attempt to do the detailing yourself. Neither of these options is easy so unsurprisingly, people tend to skip detailing even when their boat needs it. This is where mobile boat detailing comes in.
What is Mobile Boat Detailing?
One of the primary reasons why people avoid detailing is because of the hassle involved in taking the boat to the service center. With mobile detailing, the service center comes to you. In essence, you don’t even have to lift a finger to move your boat. We will come to where you boat is and get to work.
Mobile boat detailing is very convenient for people who simply don’t have the time to arrange for boat transport. It also ensures that you wouldn’t skip detailing just because you don’t have the time.
How Does it Compare to Normal Boat Detailing?
Some people are under the impression that mobile detailing isn’t as comprehensive as normal in-house boat detailing. That’s simply not the case. Mobile detailing is comprehensive enough to tide your boat over and ensure that it’s in good condition. The idea is to remove all dirt and grime from the surface of the boat and mobile boat detailing can achieve that. This service usually includes:
- Rinse – The boat is washed from top to bottom to remove the outermost layer of dirt and grime that might have accumulated on the surface.
- Soaping – After the rising, detailing experts will use boat soaps to carefully clean all surfaces of the boat.
- Buffing – Buffing doesn’t just remove the most stubborn layers of dirt and grime, it also prepares the surface for waxing, which is the next step in mobile boat detailing.
- Waxing – After the buffing, a careful layer of wax is applied to the surface of the boat.
These are just exterior detailing steps. You can hire people to clean and maintain the interior areas of the boat as well. This essential maintenance can be carried out by the dock, without you having to move the yacht.
If you want to know more about mobile boat detailing, 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.
Even the most serious and dedicated sailor, has who purchased a yacht for performance rather than looks, does care for the looks. After all, who wants a yacht that has water stains, and looks dull and chalk-like? You can restore the looks of your boat with a little boat polishing. At Freedom Yacht Services we always encourage customers to hire professionals to polish your boat, but if you want to turn it into a DIY project, here’s what you need to do:
Clean
The first step to boat polishing is actually cleaning the boat. You don’t need to do much here. Just add a cup of mild detergent to a gallon of warm water and you’re good to go. All you need to do is use this solution with a sponge to clean the surface. You might need bleach ifs the boat has problems with mildew. More stubborn stains might also require specialized fiberglass cleaners.
Removing the Grease
Waxing or polishing won’t be as effective if you don’t completely remove the grease from the surface. Even the best detergent won’t achieve that. To remove the grease completely, you need to use either methyl ethyl ketone, aka MEK, or acetone. The former is preferred as it would give the best results for your boat polishing endeavor.
Polishing
After you’re certain that the surface is clean and non-greasy, you can proceed with the polishing. Most polishing solutions are abrasive, like fine sand-paper. You’ll need to pour the solution onto a soft cloth and rub the boat surface in circular motions. This would remove any unevenness or pits in the surface. After you’ve finished boat polishing, you need to apply a coat of wax.
Waxing and Yacht Detailing
It’s always a good idea to regularly apply wax on your boat. The boat is covered with a soft resin substance that’s called a Gelcoat. This is the coating that gives your boat high-gloss sheen. This coating can fade over time, but with regular waxing you can maintain that attractive glossiness for up to 15 years. From this point on, you only have to use a soft rag to wax the boat regularly. Read the instructions given on the wax packaging carefully to get the right coating.
If you have any questions and suggestions, or want to opt for our Yacht Detailing services, just give us at Freedom Yacht Services a call at 954.732.8916. We look forward to hearing from you.
Keeping your boat clean will extend the life of the Gelcoat and protect it from mildew and salt. In fact, experienced sailors will tell you that to keep salt build-up and corrosion at bay, you need to clean your boat after every use. At Freedom Yacht Services, we believe this to be vital but we also recommend developing a technique to minimize effort and maximize cleaning. Here’s how you can do that:
Equipment
You need to get the right equipment for your boat cleaning. Some people use the wrong brushes and end up scratching the hull, which can mar the shine of the Gelcoat. So you need to keep the following in mind:
- Use a brush with medium-soft bristles. Avoid anything that’s too hard as it can harm the yacht detailing and soft Gelcoat. It’s a good idea to go for quality over affordability here. Pick a good brush that would withstand the salt, the sun, and repeated use.
- Make sure you have a long, sturdy handle. This would ensure that you can reach difficult places that would normally be out of reach. It’s vital to do a thorough boat cleaning to ensure that there’s no possibility of damage in the future.
- You will also need a bucket, a mop, some sponges, dry towels, and washing pads to do a thorough job.
Soap
Most boat owners usually use their ordinary dishwash soap for cleaning. We believe that you should use something that’s tough on the salt and the grime, but soft on the environment. Use a soap that has a neutral pH level and is biodegradable. You’ll also need to make sure that you sufficiently dilute the soap. Highly concentrated soap can damage the coating and finish, during boat cleaning.
Cleaning
Now it’s down to the most important aspect of boat cleaning. It’s time to invest some elbow grease. Our suggestion is to start from the top and focus on one section at a time. Before you do anything, be sure that the boat is rinsed properly. Using a brush on a dry boat would only damage the coating. The process is simple, lather with soap, scrub, and then rinse. That’s how you clean a boat.
If you have any questions about yacht detailing and suggestions, or want to hire our services, just call Freedom Yacht Services at 954.732.8916. We look forward to hearing from you.
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