Wind-driven spray dries on the topsides and bakes in the sun. Growth arrives at the waterline through midsummer.
An even, all-over dulling rather than a stain line. Chalk on a dry hand by August.
A coated hull sheds salt and rinses clean with far less effort. The clearest case for coating anywhere on this coast.
Water swings between fresh and salt with every tide, carrying silt and tannin past the hull twice a day.
A distinct brown line right at the waterline, browner and harder than salt growth.
The stain sets into the gelcoat rather than sitting on it, so it wants compounding and then sealing.
Almost no salt load and very little marine growth, but heavy silt and tannins coming downstream.
Tannin staining that bonds into the gelcoat. Light washing will not shift it once set.
Owners assume fresh water is the easy option. On the finish it is not: set-in tannin needs proper correction.
Three kinds of water across one 100 mile coast, and they damage a hull in genuinely different ways. This is the distinction most detailers never make, and it is why the same boat needs different work depending on which town it sleeps in.
