I had some tough staining in the deck of my boat that deck cleaner would not clean up. So I finally broke down and did about 1 cup bleach, 1 cup deck cleaner and 2 cups water. I used this to scrub all over the deck and along the sides of the boat. It cleaned the boat up nicely and I rinsed everything down after. I had planned on washing the hull of the boat after but ran out of time. Fast forward two days. I look at my boat this morning and notice streaks running down the hull of the boat from the sides of the boat. I brush it off from around my registration sticker and it wiped the color off of my sticker. So I know it’s bleach. I instantly give the entire boat a thorough spray down and wipe it down. I don’t see any streaks left on the gel coat. Now I assume it will need to wax it for sure but do you think the gelcoat will have been damaged from this sitting there for two days?

Im hoping the answer is no as the boat is only a month old.

thank you for any input.

I used bleach because it’s what most people said would do the trick. And it did. Using deck cleaner did not no matter how many times I tried and scrubbed. And I rinsed it off just as I said, but I some managed to sit in places and run off onto the hull of the boat. I already knew it would need to be waxed.

After I reapply wax, as I knew I would need to do afterwards regardless I want to try to keep it clean. For the last month, after EVERY trip the boat was scrubbed down with starbrite deck cleaner. It was scrubbed on, let sit and then scrub again. The deck only seemed to turn more and more brown after every trip until the deck cleaner just seemed to do nothing at all other than remove a few foot prints. Using the bleach got it back white like I wanted. I need something that will keep my deck WHITE. I am willing to scrub to keep it white but I need something that will work. What does everyone recommend.