Products and Tips We Love
Karen & Jeffrey Siegel
© 2010 Active Corporation
  • Neatsfoot Oil - Great for anything leather. We use it on our fender holders and on the chafing gear on our mooring lines.

  • MagicEraser - This will clean just about anything. We've used it on our fenders, as well as, in the heads and galley.

  • OxiClean - Yes, the stuff made for the laundry. Use the powdered version to clean your topsides - it works great!

    • Captain Steve Putnam has another use for OxiClean: We also use it to soak our power cords when they begin to get sticky and dirty. Soak for one hour, wipe with a 3M scrub pad and rinse. Clean as a whistle with no residue.

  • 303 High Tech Fabric Guard - We use this on all of the canvas on the boat - bimini, dinghy cover, etc. It repels water and even makes it easier to clean the seagull droppings.

  • Forever Green Bags - A bag that will keep fruits and vegatables fresh days longer? This was one of those products that just seemed "too good to be true." We found a box of them for about $3 at a discount store and decided to give them a try. It's amazing - they really work!

  • Gojo Natural Orange Pumice Hand Cleaner - We use this product to clean our inflatable dinghy. It's great! Simply rub it on and rinse it off and the dinghy looks practically new! It's important to get the "Orange" version as the others don't seem to do as good a job.

  • Raytek Mini Temp Non-Contact Thermometer Gun - This laser sighting device is the perfect thing for monitoring temperatures in the engine room. While under way, we do an engine room check every hour. As part of that check this device is used to measure the temperature of the engines. It has alerted us early to developing probelms when we have seen the temperature begin to climb. It's also fun to measure the dog's temperature by pointing it at the nose.

  • StarBrite Marine Polish with PTEF - We've tried several different products to polish and protect the stainless. This product is easy to use, takes off most of the discoloration, makes the stainless brilliantly bright, and leaves a protective coating that makes the water bead up. Two coats will greatly extend the time between applications. We've found allowing the polish to dry for 10-15 minutes seems to increase the water protection.

  • NevrDull - This is a metal cleaner that works great removing tough discoloration from stainless and other metals. We follow it up with a polish to give a protective layer.

  • Sweepa - The Sweepa is an amazing tool for removing dog hair from pretty much anything. It looks kind of like a rubber hair brush. We use it to clean hair off cushions, bedding, steps, and even to spot clean the carpets. There's also a sharp edger that lets you remove hair from hard to reach crevices.

  • Rolling Cart - Most of you are familiar with these. They're the handcarts with two wheels and a telescoping handle that fold up flat for storage. We purchased one from West Marine when we first got our current boat and used it constantly, mostly for hauling groceries. It was about $30. This past year we found ones at Ocean State Big Lots in Belfast, Maine for $10 and decided to buy a second one. We should have bought all they had. If you don't have one get one today.

  • IslandTime PC Long Range WiFi - We've used several solutions for accessing long range WiFi on the boat. This one is our favorite. It works well, is reasonably priced, and is provided through fellow cruiser, Bob Stewart. Read more in our Feb. 2010 newsletter.

Some Captains have started sending us their "favorite products" which we hope to be able to try ourselves at some point. Until then we wanted to go ahead and pass them along. If you have a favorite product or tip, let us know so we can tell the rest of the cruising world.

  • Captain Steve - "A product we love for cleaning stainless, removing black marks at scupper drains and diesel soot from the transom is Gel-Glos. It is made for cleaning and protecting formica. Buy it at Lowes, Home Depot etc. About $4 for a pint which will last a season. Apply like wax, rub on, buff off with a clean rag. Works great and is inexpensive."

    • We tried Gel-Gloss on our stern which was black from the diesel smoke after traveling from Maine to Charleston, SC. It was easy to find at a local hardware store, inexpensive, simple to use, and the stern looked great. We have traveled to the Keys and back to the Chesapeake and the stern still looks good. There are now three cans onboard aCappella.

  • Captain Gordon - "To clean the leather, make a point of using saddle soap (available at any Equistrian supply, good shoe repair shop or high end sporting goods store.) It contains essential oils that keep the leather from drying out from the water contact while foaming away the ground in dirt and grime. One can will last a lifetime."

  • Captain John - "Bags On Board for collecting those 'doggie treasures.' We were introduced to these while on our trip this summer. They are really great, no more home depot bags, etc. And you can get refills rather cheaply through ebay!"

  • Captain Denny - "I have a 1994 Bayliner, marina kept, that was starting to fade. I have cleaned and waxed each year since new, but have not been able to get the deep shine. I started using Woody Wax Ultra Gloss Fiberglass Restoring Compound a year ago and my boat now looks showroom new. Great stuff. Finish it off with their Carnauba Creme Wax and the shine will last all season. "

  • Captain Rudy - "Use Barkeepers Friend to clean topsides, does a great job on fenders, non-abrasive and inexpensive. You can get it at the supermarket. "

  • Captain Ralph - "Just reading your blog and see you are in the brown water now. I get the same mustache from the waters of the Chesapeake Bay or the rivers feeding it. After trying many products, we have found that Mary Kate's ON-OFF product works the best. Absolutely NO EFFORT to get that brown stain off. I put a SMALL amount in a bucket and use a wet sponge. Wipe the hull down....wait a few minutes (less than 5 usually) and spray it off with the hose. The brown completely disappears. One tip - if your boat has grooves in the hull to make it look like lapstrake, you have to run the corner of the sponge along the groove to be sure to get the cleaner product into the groove. If you don't, the flat surface will clean up but the groove will still have brown in it."

  • Captain TomN - "Use fabric softener to soften nylon dock lines that get stiff from salt water."

  • Captain ereiss - "A product I love is Poop-Off, available in pet supply stores to remove, guess what, bird droppings from your sailcover, bimini, dodger, etc. Stuff works like a charm."

  • Captain Paddy - "WD-40 has many uses we probably don't think of. For example, use it to drive moisture from lifejacket turnbuckles and lubricates a stuck zipper on wetsuits. The WD-40 website lists over 2,000 uses."



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