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. Your yacht actually needs regular care and maintenance to keep it looking great and functioning well. You should clean your boat thoroughly after every trip and get yacht detailing done at least once a year. At Freedom Yacht Services, we’ve seen several yachts look worn down and dull because owners didn’t detail them well.
Yacht detailing involves considerable amount of effort and skill. It’s best to leave the task to professionals. Nevertheless, as a boat owner, you might want to get the best possible care for your yacht. If you’re aware of the process, you’ll be able to make sure that the detailing is done right. Here’s what’s involved in it.
- Preparation
The first thing you need to do is transport the boat to the location of the detailing service provider. You can also hire a company that provides mobile detailing service. That would remove the hassle of transporting the boat to a different location. You might also want to clear out the boat of any personal items and valuables. We recommend removing food and drinks, clothes, electronics like mobile phones, laptops, etc.
This would ensure that the service provide can carry out the exterior as well as interior cleaning easily. While your belongings are safe with a reputable yacht detailing company, it’s just a good idea to be a little more careful. Accidents can happen, after all.
- Rinsing
The first step in the yacht detailing process is to rinse the boat. The detailing technician will spray clean water over the surface of the boat to ensure all of the dust and dirt is removed from the surface. Professionals will use pressure washers, which are much more effective at removing stubborn dust and grime. However, you don’t need pressure washes. A normal hose will do as well. It’s a good idea to wash from top to bottom.
- Soaping
In most cases, just rinsing won’t be enough. That’s alright if you just want to clean your boat after a brief spin in the water. However, if you want to do a more thorough cleaning, you need to use soap. Soap would address the more stubborn dirt and grime clinging to the surface. You’ll require a gentle boat soap to get the job done. You need to dissolve the soap in clean water and work on a small section at a time. It’s vital not to let the soap dry as it would leave stains on the gel coat. Work only on sections that you can clean off quickly after you’re done. That would address most of the dirt on the surface.
- Buffing
As most people perform yacht detailing once in a year, the grime just keeps accumulating on the surface of the boat. Sometimes, even soap isn’t enough to get rid of it. After soaping, some areas might still look dull and dirty. Before you can move on to the next step, you need to remove the final layer of dirt and oxidation with a rotary buffer. This step would prepare your boat for the wax coat.
- Waxing
This is the final step in exterior yacht detailing. Waxing has two purposes; it will make your boat gleam and shine and it would protect the boat from more dust and grime. If you wax the surface of the yacht thoroughly, you won’t have to detail it as often. That’s always a good idea. Like with soap, it’s a good idea to wax small areas at a time. Most experts will use a special boat wax for this process.
After the exterior waxing is done, an expert will move on to interior detailing. To know more about yacht detailing 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.
