An additional thought depending on how severe the damage....
I had numerous scratches/gouges from courtesy docks/trees on my gunnels over 9 years of ownership. I decided to look into going the professional route after watching many YouTube vids and deciding this was probably something I really didn't want to tackle (especially as my boat has a glitter gelcoat).
I ran across the new
3M Perfect-It Gel Coat Compound and decided it couldn't hurt to give it a try using my orbital polisher. Worst that could happen is the scratches/gouges would still require professional repair.
I am still in disbelief as to the result... Only ONE of my deep gouges (into the glitter zone) did not 'rub out'. My boat looks like brand new and didn't take long. Unlike normal compounding processes where you have to start with a course grit and work your way up to finer and finer grits, with this product you select the most aggressive formula you think you need (I chose Medium) and that is ALL you use. With the polish/wax also built in, it does the entire job in one pass.
I would never have guessed... I did use a bit of light wet sanding with 600 grit on a couple of the deeper scratches and then used the 3M product and I couldn't tell there was ever anything there. Even the one super deep gouge still looks much better and I see absolutely no reason to take to a repair shop.... Worth giving it a try!!