Ceramic Coatings are an expensive way to save yourself a little time. They do not last more than a couple of years, unless you are refreshing them (usually an additional expense), and it is recommended that you use special soaps to maintain them as well. The coating will not prevent water spots, one of the most common problems. Additionally if the coating fails prematurely, the best you get is another application of the same thing. If you do the coating yourself, you will need to be capable of polishing the boat's surface prior to applying the coating, and it will maybe last up to two years. You can buy apply-it-yourself kits for $60-200.
Below is my previous post about polishing/waxing my boat at the one year mark. The sealant/synthetic wax/polish cost less than $6 to do the boat. I hand applied Griot's Poly Wax (same as One-Step without the polish) to the tower and interior surfaces - not including the non-skid. So, I spent $8 for everything. If you have to buy the buffer and pad, you would have to spend an additional $170, but then you would have the buffer for your boat and cars. For me, I would rather spend a little time (a few hours) once or even twice a year applying a synthetic wax or synthetic wax/polish versus spending a lot of money for something that may or may not even last a couple of years.
Prior Post
It has been over year with no problems/issues with the FSH 190 Sport in salt water. Water was still beading well on the hull, but there was a build up of water spots and a general dullness. To most people it still looked very good, but it was time to polish and wax the hull. I chose to use Griot's Garage One-Step Sealant; it is a fine polish and synthetic wax. I have used on autos to remove etched water spots and other minor paint blemishes with impressive results. I applied it to the boat with a Griot's 6 inch Random Orbital buffer (8 mm throw) using an orange correcting pad. You spread the product on speed 2, and then you buff it on speed 5. After two quick passes, I moved to the next area. The product hazes in 15-30 minutes, and it wipes off with almost no residue or dust. I wiped off the boat with three Griot's PFM microfiber wax removal cloths - each about the size of a pot holder. The cloths were relatively clean after the removing the One-Step. The entire process took less than 2.5 hours, including set-up and tear-down.
The results are in the photo; you can see the horizon in the blue stripe. It is the brightest boat at the marina. The One-step should last about a year; it has done that for me on daily driven cars.
** One-Step would not be appropriate for oxidized gel coat. You would need a more aggressive compound/possibly wet sand paper/more aggressive pad
and a longer throw buffer (15-21 mm).