As an addendum to my previous post I would like to give a short bit of instruction to those unfamiliar with "compounding".
When you buy your wool "bonnet" or "pad", pick up a spur while your there. Most auto paint and body supply houses should have them. Use a slow speed right angle polisher not a high speed sander/grinder. I am not talking about those useless 30 dollar orbital polishers. They are ok for applying wax, or for polishing a boat thats already shiny.
Wash the boat first with a strong cleaner. Try using one of the super cleaners such as Purple
Power. Be careful with these cleaners as they can cause skin damage, use gloves. Some of these super strong cleaners are so penetrating that they actually pull yellowing right out of the gelcoat.
When the hull is dry begin compouding with the wool pad. Add a small amount of compound directly to your wool pad. Put the pad on the boat and smear the compound around before you turn on the polisher. Work a small area of about 2ft. by 2 ft.. Keep your pad at a slight angle to the surface at all times and keep it moving with light pressure at first, gradually decreasing pressure as the compund loses moisture. It is at this point where the compound is drying up that the wool is actually doing part of the polishing. Keep polishing until all compound is gone from the surface. Do not leave a "haze". If you cannot get all the compound off, your pad is oversaturated, wet or needs to be cleaned or "spurred".
If you do not have a spur, you can use a screwdriver or anything metal and somewhat pointed. When you see you pad has become matted, spin up you polisher and apply the spur to the surface moving it around to free up the fibers. Do this often, or until matting happens too quickly. Then it's time to clean the pad.
Use a hose and rinse clean and let dry. You can speed drying by spinning the
water out on your polisher. Always use a dry pad if you can. You may want to buy more than one. I use 3 on my
Morgan O/I 41.
As you get better at this you can increase the size of the area you can compound. I would say 4ft. by 4ft. is about max and that'd probably be too big for most. On edges, corners, tight spots, br very careful and use a light touch. Compound can and will burn through gelcoat. Gelcoatis are much, much thicker than paint though, so go ahead and do it. It's easy and you will be amazed at the result.