Smelly old boat

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Petercatterall

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To be honest my boat stinks! it doesnt smell too bad when you first get on but the pervading odour penetrates all your clothes which have to be washed to get rid of it.
I cant describe the smell (its not the heads or chemical loo smell) It usually ensures that I am given room in a crowded bar but SWIMBO is not impressed.
Where does the smell live? I guess mainly in the mattresses and cushions?
In forumites experience would changing all the foam rubber, washing the covers, curtains and other textiles, washing down all other surfaces etc get rid of most of the smell?
Help!!
Stinky Pete (name and address supplied)
 
I guess it's trial and error Pete. Try taking the (possibly) offending articles off the boat for a few days and then check around. If it goes then check the articles out of the boat environment to try and pin it down. In the meantime check areas of the boat for source(s).
Or you could change your socks!
 
Humm. Where do I start. First there was the infamous exploding bog. Then the pressurised holding tank when I took the 2 inch pipe off and held it up high. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif Then there was the poorly dog and the new puppy dog. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif Interspaced by the welcomed tomato soup in a storm /forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif The occasional diesel or oil leak and.......................................... /forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif
 
If the odor is a soft swampy/sewer odor, that's most likely a dirty bilge and/or sump. The cure: Cleaning--really CLEANING and then flushing out ALL the dirty water--your bilges and sumps instead of only dumping something in. This should be done at least once a season. When closing up the boat, use a manual pump, shop vac, sponge, bucket (any or all of the above) to remove the water the bilge pumps leave behind. A dry bilge doesn't stink.

If cleaning the bilges and sumps doesn't cure it, look for trapped water below the sole somewhere. Limber holes can get plugged up, leaving water to sit, stagnate and turn into a real primordial soup that smells like one...especially if the icebox and/or shower drain into the bilge instead of into a sump. Trapped water can be hard to find...once you've eliminated every other possibility, you just have to follow your nose to the source...odors are always strongest at their source.

If the odor is a sharp sweet/sour/sickly/not quite sewer odor, it's most likely permeated sanitation hoses: The cure: replace all the sanitation hoses.

The most overlooked source of odor on a boat is the chain locker. The same sea critters that get trapped in the head intake to die and decay and cause the first flush after the boat has sat to knock you off your feet also die and decay in the chain locker and anchor rode. The cure: pull the whole rode out, put it on the dock and wash it thoroughly with detergent and water, followed by a thorough rinse with plenty of clean water. Leave it out till it's dry. While it's drying, clean (see bilge cleaning above) the chain locker.

A moldy odor is mold/mildew. The cure: Put all cushions and other soft goods--including life jackets--in the sun for a day (hard to do at this time of year)...wipe ALL hard surfaces with a solution of 1/2 litre of bleach/1 gal water. ALL surfaces includes the insides of lockers and drawers (get the outsides of 'em, pull 'em and wipe the outsides, and the inside walls of the area). Increase ventilation to your boat...install a solar powered fan or two if you don't have any. Leave all interior hatches and lockers open, pull drawers out a few inches when away from the boat.

It's quite possible for a boat to suffer from ALL of the above, so you may have quite a bit of work to do to get rid of all the odors. But once you've found and eliminated all the sources of the existing odor(s), it's a lot easier to KEEP it odor free than to "destink-ify" a boat that's gotten REALLY smelly.
 
Thanks for all the usuall good advice.
one clear problem is that whatever the original source(s) of the smell it is now established in all the soft furnishings. The odour from 2 mattresses which I brought home to store (and left in our lounge overnight) has permeated the lounge suite and curtains. SWIMBO says we now have to buy new ones (always an oportunist!!) As part of the de-smelling I guess that I will have to replace all the foam, wash all the other fabrick and clean all the surfaces as per the recommendations.
Putting anything smelly back would just re-import the smell.
Ah well out with scrubbing brush and my Marigolds!!
 
We have tracked down the pervading chemical smell in our fairly recently purchased boat to the fake leather underside of the cushions. One cushion is covering a double battery (2 x 100 AH) box, of which emanates a tarry smell. Is this normal ? It has definitely caused the foam to decay.
 
The foam can be saved, Peter. Go to your local pet supply store and buy a gallon of microbial odor eliminator (ONLY microbial, not any chemical product). Put it in a pumpup garden spray jug. After you've removed the covers, spray enough of it into both sides of the foam to pentrate all the way into the middle, then put the foam out in the sun to dry for a day...or if that's not practical this time of year, just prop 'em up and turn fans on for 24 hours.

Spray carpet, headliner, insides of any "fur" lined lockers--ANY soft goods--and all the lockers where smelly sanitation hoses have left odor behind. Leave any enclosed areas open and run fans on for a day.

Microbial odor "eaters" are NOT a substitute for cleaning bilges and sumps...you have to clean to get rid of the source or the odor(s) will return. But they will get rid of any organically caused odor left behind. Don't be skimpy with it....otoh, don't use so much that you need a wet vac, either. Use enough to penetrate carpet all the way to the backing, foam all the way through. I've used 'em many times, including my own boats...they work!
 
I have an electric toilet on-board and a anti-sysphon unit attached to the pipe....it needs to be pumped out completely or the waste ends up seeping back into the bog....

However, when pumping the smell from the anti syphon unit really humms and stinks the boat out....

Sea water used to flush and left to stand in the toilet can really humm after a couple of days too...

My boat just smells of diesel, engine oil, wood and varnishquite a nice smell...wet towels smell of it too but i got used to it
 
Stephen, the solution to the odor out your vented loop is an air valve. If there is one, it's failed and requires replacement...if there never has been one, there should have been. The air valve only allows air INTO the line to break siphon, doesn't allow anything to escape. Air valves do require periodic cleaning and/or replacement.

Tom, I first heard of PureAyre while I was at a boat show in Seattle a month ago to give seminars. I brought home some samples, and have also asked on the various sites if anyone has used it, and if so, does it work as advertised. It does! (And yes, it's VERY pricy!)

Most microbial "odor eaters" will eliminate any organically caused odor...PureAyre is the only product I've EVER found that will also eliminate diesel odor. However, for it to eliminate diesel or any other odor, the source of the odor must be removed first...you can't just dump some into a smelly bilge or a semi-mopped up diesel spill, the site must be thoroughly clean.

There's another product I've begun to hear about that users claim will not only eliminate diesel odor, but will also "eat" the spill itself--and fairly quickly too, unlike other "oil eating bugs".. called "Captain Chomp:" http://www.chompproducts.com/bilge.htm

Ozone generators are a bad idea. Ozone in any concentration strong enough to do any good is not only a health hazard, it's also HIGHLY corrosive and destructive rubber, neoprene and flexible PVC—in other words, every seal, valve and hose on a boat.

According to the EPA (U.S. Environmental Proection Agency) , “Available scientific evidence shows that, at concentrations that do not exceed public health standards, ozone is generally ineffective in controlling indoor air pollution. The concentration of ozone would have to greatly exceed health standards to be effective in removing most indoor air contaminants. In the process of reacting with chemicals indoors, ozone can produce other chemicals that can be irritating and corrosive.”

As for how well the portable ozone generators work when it comes to getting rid of boat odors… yes, people who’ve bought them do rave about how well they work. And, yes, the manufacturers do assure you that the ozone concentration is well below that which can present any health hazard. But if that's true, they can't deliver enough ozone to destroy the sources of any odors. If they did deliver enough ozone to destroy the sources of odors, it should only be necessary to run one occasionally. But among all the people you know who’ve bought ozone generators, have you ever met anyone who has one who's ever been able to turn if off without having odors return? That should be enough to tell you that ozone generators are only very expensive air fresheners, because they don't deliver enough ozone to be anything else. Save your money and get rid of the SOURCES of your odors. Eliminating the source is the only thing that really works.

For more information on the hazards of ozone generators:

http://www.epa.gov/iaq/pubs/ozonegen.html

http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/english/protection/warnings/1999/99_62e.htm
 
I got rid of 99% of this problem by eliminating the microbes living on diesel/oil residue in the bilge and by increasing ventilation as follows
1. clean out the bilge (judicious use of oven cleaner follwed by a good rinse)
2. before every trip to the boat fill a plasitc bottle with a solution made up of biological cloths washing powder (daz/Tide) and pine disinfectant and clean water. Put this in the bilge and then pump out before leaving the baot. The detergent keeps it clean and disinfectant kills bugs
3. Leave port holes open - placing buckets underneath to catch rain.
It works for me!
Martin
 
We're changing engines in a 25 year old Aquastar, and once the old plonkers were out, found suspicious oil stains coming from under the sole, under where the engines were. We ground out the floor, and found a foul 'sick boat' small of oil and water tracking down between the inside of the keel and the closed cell foam that was filling the space. We've now dug all this out, and removed grotty bulkheads too, and the stench is being replaced by the smell of epoxy and resin where we are rebuilding her...much nicer! A quick hint too, when removing the last of the oil from the bilges we used fine sawdust and just let it soak up the oil, then rubbed the surfaces with more clean sawdust, they came up bootiful!
 
My old Snapdragon has an oily aroma that permeates everything. There's a one-piece moulding that forms the cabin sole and dinette seats. The sides of the lockers under the seats are glassed on to the hull bottom, and they can be cleaned but there's no access to the rest of it.

I've cut an access hatch under the table and found a slick of oil from the old engine that has probably accumulated over years. I've cleaned as much as I can reach and the aroma has diminished, but there are areas that I simply can't get to - under the head, for example, and these are probably also covered in the same slick.

Apart from pouring a gallon of detergent in there and leaving it to slosh around all winter, is there anything that's available this side of the Atlantic that would do any good? That Chomp stuff does look the biz, but is it available over here, and if so, would just pouring it (or something similar) into the bilges and leaving it for a month or two work?
 
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