[yachtfisher]

Its kinda hard to say, but in general #49 will make a dull oxodized boat shine good.

But there diffent kinds of gelcoat that are subject to all kinds of chemical and human induced problems. (probably not the case)

Forget about a foam pad it won't do s###
try to increase you buffer speed put a good amount of compound on the hull then apply some realitvly heavy pressure with the wool pad fairly flat and work and smaller area then reduce pressure.

I think the dark brown polish they sell in the blue bottle sucks you might try the mequires hand polish and some type of liquid wax, with the buffer around 1500 and machine polish the boat.

I would be surprised if it did'nt shine, but like I said above small chance there is a problem with gelcoat. Most likely you just need to adjust your buffing technique