Catman,

Before I respond to your thoughts, I want to go back to the beginning of the thread. Greg wanted to know what caused the oxidation damage to his hulls. It's caused by a particular spectrum of sun light, ultraviolet. Sounds like he tried to repair the damage and he was dissapointed his effort to do so didn't last.

We're all so busy in life that every time we are confronted with a new experience, who has time to investigate everything and why reinvent the wheel. Somedody tells us how they tackled the issue and we follow their advice; after all we were the one without any relevant experience. But there's practical problem with giving advice. You can't say, just do what I tell you, cause they're a lot of us who might resent a sailor standing in for god. So I figure, to each their own, and am inclined to keep my mouth shut. But if you could sneak inside my skull you might hear, jeez I wonder why that guy insists on paddling upstream.

Hull damaged, above the waterline, doesn't appreciably alter a boats sailing efficfiency. So it seems to me when hull oxidation bothers us it must have to do with damaging the boat's visual appeal. For my part I like shiny stuff. Also, personally I hate spending hours of hard rubbing; it's just more work than I want to do. I'd rather putter around less strenuously than end up feeling like my hands and shoulders are about to fall off.