Hi,

As the little refurb on my Lightning comes to an end, i want to just give 'Ginger' a nice clean & polish (The new rigging works a treat & she is so very comfortable to sail - beat a laser upwind in nothing yesterday!!) Anyway, cutting & polishing the hull. What would any of you recommend? Ive seen the 'Trade secret' stuff that seems to fit the bill (budget being VERY important). What's 'Carnauba'?

I guess car cut/polish will be too harsh but for a nice general 'gleaminess', what d'you reckon?

If you have some stains to get ou of the hull then a bit of T-Cut (coloured if necessary) is fine.  You could also rub with some very fine (P800 or higher) wet and dry - ensure that all wet and dry polishing is finished off in 'line of draw' (you want the scratches to be in line with the water flow)

I would then give the whole thing a good waxing - autoglym or equivalent - to promote a good shine and general slippiness in the water.

Word of warning though - what is slippy through the water is slippy when you have to stand on it to recover a capsize.

This is certainly true on wooden boats or a boat that you might want to repaint because it can be difficult to get all of the wax polish off. Any left remaining will ruin the repaint and you'd have to do it again.

On a plastic boat it's much less of a problem.

Silicone and paint are a very bad idea - even airbourne silicone can and will kill a paint finish.

I remember a few years ago hearing about a guy who was fired from a car paint plant. He returned some small time later and emptied a can of silicone mould release thru a motice lock via a straw (think WD40 type straw).  A weeks lost production and a clean up were required.  The bill was in the region of £300k