Every year, my family (45 people - including 10 kids 9 years old and under) rent a bunch of lake houses in north carolina for a week in July. For the past few years, they have bugged me to bring my boat. I never have, because I would have to leave it sitting in the water for a week tied to a dock at one of the houses, and I knew that the boat would get trashed every day by my walley non-boat owning family members and their kids. Well, this year, I caved in and decided to bring by Axis A22 with me. In preparation for the week of abuse that my boat would undergo at the hands of my family, I began looking at buying some cleaning products that would help keep the boat clean, and my OCD side at bay during my vacation. I hate to say it, but, in the past, my quiver of cleaning products included car wash soap,a bucket, a sponge, and armorall.
After reading a post on here about the products offered by Boat Bling, I pulled the trigger and picked up some sauces. Specifically, I got their Hot Sauce, Vinyl Sauce, Conditioning Sauce and Quickie Sauce. I will say that the spray bottles appear to be durable (they got tossed around a good bit and haven't broken or leaked yet). When you're spending $20+ on each bottle, you don't want the contents spilling out or the bottle breaking.
I'll try to break down my thoughts and observations on each sauce:
Hot Sauce
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This stuff is touted as being excellent at removing water spots from your hull and leaving you with a nice, streak-free finish. Well, the sauce does that very well. However, what I noticed is that the Hot Sauce actually ate through, and removed, much tougher stuff than mere water spots. For example, one of my precious nephews managed to dribble strawberry jelly down the transom of my boat as he stood on my swim platform and ate his lunch. My boat, being solid black, managed to hide this from me until it was time for me to give the boat its evening wipe down. By then, the jelly had baked onto the gell coat and exhibited the consistency of tar. Fearing the worst, I sprayed the dribble spot down with Hot Sauce and let it sit while I sprayed and wiped off the rest of the rear of the boat. When I got back to the baked on mess, I hit it one more time with some Hot Sauce and, low and behold, with one wipe, it was clean. Another time that the Hot Sauce shined (no pun intended) was in the removal of the week old scum line on the hull. I've left my boat in the water for a day or two here and there, and when I pull it later, I'm always forced to fight the dreaded scum line. Once again, I was amazed at how effective the Hot Sauce was when, with one application and quick wipe, the scum line was gone - completely. Overall, I give the Hot Sauce a five out of five for cleaning and finish. The stuff sprays on and wipes off clean, without streaks, and leaves a nice reflective sheen on the gelcoat. It also has a pleasant, but not overwhelming smell. Yes, it will remove every water spot you have, but it will also easily handle much tougher cleaning tasks.
Vinyl Sauce
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Let me start by asking you to image what the interior of my boat looked like on a daily basis after being used as a jungle gym/fort/play house/ hiding place/ etc. by 10 kids under 10 years of age, popcicles, grapes, blueberries, bananas, cheeze crackers, doritos, juice boxes, etc. in hand at all times. Lets just say it looked like I had a Russian rave party in by boat every day for a week. I found smashed chips between the seats, a veritable fruit cocktail spread across the sun pads, dirt, mud, sand, and other debris outlining and marking size 3-8 footprints everywhere, and other disasters involving my precious vinyl. Well, the Vinyl Sauce somehow managed to remove all of the garbage, stains, smears, juices, etc. that were left on the vinyl in my boat. The Sauce cut through stuff that soap and water would not have handled - like dora the explorer toenail polish residue, for example - and left the vinyl looking clean and dry. Was it worth $20 something dollars every time I was able to remove a cheezit and retain stain-free vinyl? Yes. I can honestly say that the Vinyl Sauce is the best interior cleaner I have ever used. Oh, one other thing, I'd say you should be able to clean your entire boat using this sauce many, many, many times with one bottle. You really do not have to cake on the cleaner to get it to work. Just a light spritz gets the job done.
Conditioning Sauce
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This is the product Boat Bling makes that is intended to bring your vinyl back to that silky soft feeling it had the day it was stiched at the factory. I used the conditioning sauce once during the week that I was on vacation. I was cleaning the boat hard every day and leaving it uncovered baking in the sun all day long for a week, so I felt I owed it to the boat to condition the vinyl at least one good time. Also, obviously, I was giddy to see what results I would get from the Conditioning Sauce, as I have 65 hours on my boat and I had not yet applied any vinyl condiitoner since I bought it. When I applied the Conditioning Sauce, the vinyl had just been cleaned and had been given time to dry. Now, when I say dry, I mean the vinyl had that finish/texture to it that reminds me somewhat of what the paint on your car feels like after you wash it (for the first time in months), but before you wax it. (Sorry if I'm losing you here.) What I mean is that if you ran your fingers across the paint/vinyl with some pressure, your fingers would kind of jerk along the surface, and maybe even make a nice squeaking sound. In other words, the surface was not exactly silky to the touch. After applying the Conditioning Sauce and allowing it to dry. I immediately noticed that the vinyl was softer to the touch and, while not greasy or slippery (like the leather seats in your car are after you douse them with tire shine - c'mon, I know you've done it) it allowed your and to glide smoothly over the surface of the vinyl. Back to the car analogy, it gave a similar feeling as the paint on a nice freshly waxed and buffed vehicle. Ok, now we've all sprayed "tire foam" on our tires after washing our cars and thought, "Damn, that looks good!" only to be disappointed the next day after everything's dryed out over night when your tires have reverted back to the same dull matte black look they had the day before. Well, what I noticed with the Conditioning Sauce is that, even days after I had used it, the vinyl stayed softer and was actually easier to keep clean using the Vinyl Sauce. As with the Vinyl Sauce, the Conditioning Sauce goes a LONG WAY. In light of the limited number of times that you really need to use this stuff, I'd say my bottle is going to last me a good while.
Quickie Sauce
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This stuff is essentially wax in a spray bottle. Does it work well? Yes it does. Is it "better" than some other the other high end waxes that I have to keep the hull looking good? Well, let's say it's on par with some of the best. However, it's very easy to apply quicly using the spray bottle, so that's a unique feature of the Quickie Sauce that I really like. I had to leave my boat tied to the dock all week and kept it from banging against anything by using two huge white houseboat fenders that I borrowed from a buddy of mine for the week. Well, the water was always chopped up pretty bad where we stayed, as there was tons of traffic going by all week. As a result, by boat got jostled around constantly, and was rubbing up and down against these huge fenders all day, every day. I was disappointed to see, when I pulled my boat out at the end of the week that I had developed two marks on my black hull in the area where the bumpers had been. it looked like someone had put a ton a microscopic scratches on the hull in both places. I think this was due to the fact that, where we stayed, there was a beach area and the water was really shallow at the dock, so there was a fair amount of sediment in the water most of the time. Anywho, when I got home on Saturday, I brought out the high speed buffer, sprayed the affected areas with the Quickie Sauce, and went to work. In two applications and buffs, the spots had disappeared, leaving the hull looking brand new. Much to my wife's chagrin, unpacking the rest of our gear suffered a delay, as I decided to wax and buff the entire hull. Having the wax I was using in a spray bottle definitely shortened the process, however, and I was able to finish before the wife went absolutely bananas. Like the other Sauces, the Quickie Sauce goes a long way. It took very little - maybe 1/15 of a bottle to wax the whole boat. Oh, and as I said before, the results seemed to be on par with the Meguires and and 3m products that I also have - a very bright, slick, even shine.
I hope that this review is helpful for any of you guys who are considering buying some high-end cleaning products. I must admit, at first, I was hesitent to pull the trigger and spend the coin of these Sauces. However, now that I have used them, I see the results, and I understand how long this stuff will actually last me, I have absolutely no regrets, and will continue to buy this stuff in the future. I guess one thing to consider is, when you're spending what you're spending to buy these boats, what's a $20 or so dollars here or there to make sure you are keeping your pride and joy in great shape?
I'm sorry I don't have any pictures yet. I will try to get you guys some before and after shots so you can see the results.
