On Sat, 24 Jan 2009 19:55:50 -0800 (PST), Frogwatch
wrote:

My S2 sailboat is 27 yrs old and the gelcoat is badly chalking. Today
when we went to clean her, the water all round her was milky with the
stuff from the gelcoat. The gelcoat has numerous tiny stress cracks
and thin spots. Over the years, I have tried various polishes with
very little luck. I think that with a lot of work, something could be
done to remove the oxidation and then cover the surface with some sort
of wax or other barrier but this is an extreme amount of work. I have
considered re-painting her topsides but I have never seen this work
well, often it flakes or soon looks worse than the original. The new
coat rarely covers the old stress cracks either. Is there a solution
to this?
I have used a water or alchohol thinned two part epoxy primer on my
home built boats and it adheres very well and I wonder if this stuff
will work as a deck paint over gelcoat.

Nope.

The only solution is roll and tip with Awlgrip to make it look brandy
new.

Or power tool polishers with 3M heavy duty compound followed by an
application of 3M Finesse-It II and 3M Gel Coat Restorer over that.

I can say with no small confidence that the later will work well. I
had a Halman double ender that was brown and heavily chalked. I did
the whole 3M thing on the hull and it came out perfectly - beaufiful
color by the time I was done. I posted a few pictures of the hull
when I first started - the difference was amazing.

You can't use one of those cheapie orbital polishers - angle grinder
with the 12" 3M foam pads and backing is the only way to do it right.

--

Honesty is the best policy, but insanity
is a better defense.