Hurricane season boat prep: the detailing side (June–November)

What does hurricane season actually do to a boat's finish?

The Atlantic season runs June 1 through November 30, with a statistical peak on September 10 and most activity between mid-August and mid-October. For a boat in Palm Beach or Broward, the named storms are the headline; the six months around them are the real problem. Summer midday UV in South Florida reads 10–11 on the EPA scale, which is the top of "very high" and into "extreme." Bare gelcoat under that load starts to chalk within a single season.

Add salt. Afternoon squalls lay wet spray on every surface and the sun bakes it in. Salt deposits are hygroscopic: they pull moisture out of the air and hold it, so a hull rinsed Friday is damp and crusted by Sunday. The same film sits in stitching, non-skid, and canvas seams, and it is exactly what mildew wants. Mildew establishes once relative humidity sits above roughly 60% on a warm surface, which describes a closed cabin in West Palm Beach for the entire season.

Pre-season: get the protection on before June

Protection goes on before the season, not during it. The right order is decontamination, correction, then coating, because a coating locks in whatever is under it. If the hull is already chalky from last summer, that oxidized layer gets cut and refined first; coating over oxidation buys nothing. On a sound surface, a marine ceramic coating installed in April or May means the finish takes the summer behind a hard silica layer instead of on its own.

If you are not coating this year, a quality polymer sealant is the fallback, on the understanding that it survives a few months in this UV, not a season. Plan to re-seal in August ahead of the peak. Either way, do the topsides and hardtop, not just the hull sides; the horizontal surfaces take the direct sun and most of the chalking.

Pre-season is also the time to condition vinyl and canvas. Clean seats to base material, treat the stitching, and apply a UV protectant that is not greasy. Isinglass gets a proper polish and protectant now, because scratched clears fog fast under salt. Our ceramic coating work on boats always starts here, with the whole vessel, not a hull-only pass.

During the season: the washdown cadence that carries the coating

The coating does the protecting; the washdown is what keeps it working. From June to November we run most in-water boats weekly and lift-kept boats bi-weekly. A fresh-water wash with coating-safe soap, chamois dry, and glass and stainless wiped spot-free removes the salt before it draws moisture and before the scum line sets. Skip three weeks in August and the waterline that used to wipe off can need an acid wash.

There is a second contaminant on this coast: tannin water. The Loxahatchee runs tea-colored from tannins in decaying vegetation, the kind of cypress-lined river that stains everything it touches. On a white hull it leaves a brown waterline stain that does not rinse off. A coated hull releases it with a light wipe; bare gelcoat absorbs it, and the longer it sits the deeper it goes. This is where a standing boat washes and maintenance program earns its cost: the stain is wiped away weekly instead of compounded out in October.

After a storm: decontamination in the right order

BoatUS's post-storm guidance is short: regardless of condition, the boat should be cleaned and dried out, and protected from leaks and mildew. On the detailing side that means sequence. First, a thorough fresh-water rinse of every exterior surface, top down, before you touch anything with a brush. Storm surge carries sand, grit, and fuel sheen; scrubbing that dry drags it across the gelcoat and leaves scratches you will pay to correct later.

Second, open the boat up. Pull cushions, open lockers and the head, run fans or a dehumidifier, and get the cabin under 60% humidity within a day or two. Wet carpet, foam, and canvas that sit for a week become a mildew job instead of a drying job. Salt-wet electronics and helm gauges get wiped with fresh water on a damp cloth, then dried, not sprayed.

Third, treat what is already growing. Marine vinyl takes a dedicated mildew remover and then a conditioner so it resists coming back; long-neglected stitching can be permanently stained, and we will say so honestly. Avoid bleach-based cleaners on gelcoat and stitching; they dull the surface and rot thread. Engine rooms that took water get degreased and dried, which also makes any new leak visible to a surveyor.

Dry stack or wet slip: what changes on the detailing side

Dry stack solves the water problems: no surge, no piling chafe, no scum line, no tannin. Marina One in Deerfield Beach rates its buildings to 135 mph sustained winds (Category 4), starts hauling when a hurricane watch is issued and requires boats at its dock before a warning, with hurricane-season storage reserved June 1 to November 30. What dry stack does not solve is heat and humidity. A rack in a closed building is warm and still, and a boat put away wet after a run comes out with mildew in the seams. Rinse and dry before it goes on the forks.

Wet slip boats, at Palm Harbor, Bahia Mar, Lauderdale Marine Center, or a private dock on the Intracoastal, carry the opposite load. Surge and debris scratch hull sides, the waterline works all season, and salt spray hits every hour of every day. A coated hull on a weekly washdown handles it. A bare hull on a monthly rinse does not, and that is the boat we see in October with a brown waterline and chalked topsides.

What the market charges, and how we quote

Florida detailers that publish per-foot rates land in fairly consistent bands. Basic maintenance washes run about $3–5 per foot, often with a minimum. Wash and wax packages run roughly $17–24 per foot. One Central Florida detailer publishes compound and wax to remove oxidation at $45 per foot, and marine ceramic coating runs about $40–70 per foot before correction, with used, oxidized hulls priced higher because the correction stage comes first.

We do not publish a rate card, because a 34-foot center console with light haze and a 60-foot sportfish that has been bare for three seasons are not the same job per foot. Send length, storage type, and photos through the quote builder and you get a firm number. Booking pre-season work in April and May also gets you on the calendar before the June rush.

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