[drgamble]

I recently purchased a a sailboat (and am new to this forum) that is in excellent condition but I have one to-do item that has been bothering the heck out of me. There appears to be blue ink marks left in the cockpit by someone who must have had a ballpoint pen in their back pocket while sitting. The fact that the boat is in such great condition everywhere else only makes these marks stand out all the more. Any suggestions on removing this? It is on smooth surface, not non skid. Thanks.

 

[Giulietta]

Maine Sail..that's the guy to ask....

 

[AllThumbs]

I might be tempted to use fansatic to remove it. if not, you could try buffing the area with a buffing compound then wax.

 

[Rockter]

Try a wee bit of acetone, carefully.

 

[scottyt]

most pens are alcohol based so try that first, it will strip wax so if it gets it off you will need to wax it. start with weak stuff and work up in harshness, you might want to also try the magic eraser too

 

[Quickstep192]

I'd go with the alcohol and maybe some Meguiars non-skid remover. If you really just wait to get rid of it, FSR will probably do it, but that stuff is pretty harsh on gelcoat. If you can wait, it will probably fade in time with exposure to the sun after you get the worst of it off with the alcohol and non-skid cleaner.

 

[timebandit]

In the oldin days before pocket protectors it was hair spray we used on our shirts, I don't know if it still works or not on the new fangled stuff.

 

[Delirious]

Would that the sailboat I just purchased only had that as a dilema.

If any of the above don't work a bit of toothpaste and a piece of papertowel or toilet paper is a good mild abrasive to go after spot stains on gelcoat or awlgrip surfaces. GENTLY.

 

[sailingdog]

I think acetone is a good starting point, since ballpoint pen ink dissolves in acetone. Alcohol is also a good generic solvent to try, as is WD40. It really depends on what the chemical makeup of the ink is.

 

[Sailormon6]

I'll second the "hair spray" suggestion. I've used it several times to remove ball point pen marks around the pocket of a white dress shirt and other items. It never failed, and it's so benign that there's no risk that it'll damage your gelcoat.

 

[drgamble]

Thanks a lot for the advice and I'll be giving the options a try this weekend.

P.S. - I do have a running print-out of exterior care posts by MaineSail but just couldn't find anything out there specific to ink and noticed a lot of conflicting posts using items that may be too aggressive with gelcoat (e.g. Barkeeper's friend).

 

[drgamble]

as a follow on, a little bit of acetone took care of the stains, which appeared to be your average Bic-style rollerball blue ink pen marks. Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[sailingdog]

Thanks for keeping us posted on how it worked out...

 

[Sapperwhite]

Glad it worked, sorry i didn't see this thread earlier.

Mr. Clean Magic Eraser works really well for this tyoe of thing too.