Laser Hull UV Damage?

legenwaitforitdanny

legenwaitforitdanny

New Member
[first post]

Hi there,

My name is Danny and I'm new to the forum. I just bought my first laser, an absolute peach from 1980, sail number 81***, the stiffest and driest boat of its age I've ever seen. It must have been meticulously maintained so I'm absolutely thrilled, all she needed was new fittings and ropes. Anyway I gave her a nice clean and the deck is sparkling white, but the hull is a strange cream/yellow-ey colour. It seems to be UV damage but I'm not sure if the original gelcoat was white, and the sun turned it off-yellow, or if it was yellow, and the sun just washed out the colour. Either way, I'd like to get rid of the staining. I tried giving it a good scrub with Cif (or Jif) abrasive washing detergent which made it a bit cleaner and brighter but it's still that colour.

Does anyone have any ideas of cleaning products there are that could help, or would I need to sand it and paint it? Any input is greatly appreciated. (some pictures included, on top of the car, and after cleaning it)

Thanks :)
Looking forward to many enjoyable hours of laser sailing

2015-03-15 14.36.17.jpg IMG-20150314-WA0001.jpeg IMG-20150315-WA0001.jpg
 
My first thought was, weren't they supposed to be that colour at the time? Actually it's the white deck that's kind of strange. You might try sanding the gelcoat somewhere like under the gunwale to see what the original colour is.
 
Try the aggressive hull cleaners and if that doesn't do it research "gelcoat wetsand" there is allot of info on it in the wake board boat forums.
 
Thanks guys :) ill give it a bit of a sand somewhere inconspicuous tomorrow and see what the original colour was. If I do refurbish the hull, does the wetsand + buffing method or painting it get better results?
 
Work smart, not hard is my motto. If you are dealing with discoloration only I would try the washes then try heavy rubbing compound with a orbital. If it cuts it then follow up with light compound then Polish then wax. It out doesn't cut it then wet sand. The original gelcoat on these are thick and you should have plenty to work with. Id start with 220 and go up to 1000 then polish
 
Before you attack the hull, try removing the rudder pintle and see what colour it is under there. If it is the same, then all well and good (certainly not UV damage).
 
Last fall I "cleaned up" my Capri 14.2 that was originally yellow. When I started it was very heavily oxidized like more white looking rather than yellow:(. If you find that the hull needs sanded or painted I would strongly suggest you first go through the sanding process and not rush into paint. The trick is to save as much jell coat as possible. I chose to start with 400 wet and dry and worked my way up to 1500. Once the coating started looking pretty good I went to polishing compound an an orbital polisher (cheep at Harbor Freight) and went over the boat four times. I finally finished off with four coats of a good marine past wax buffing our between coats. The final results looked like new. I just looked at the jell coat this weekend and it still looks new. Sorry but this is a lot of work but like other things in life doing just about anything in life requires a lot of work if you want things right. In my case, the extra effort was worth the end result and provided a boat I am proud of. :)
 
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