I'm having problems with 2 separate stink/cleaning problems which
would not be problems if the boat were she launched & able to slosh
cleaners around in moderate seas, versus up on stands for long
storage:

Stink #1: had horrid mouse infestation (I was a dumass & left a
ladder on her). Sprayed all reachable areas w/detergent & bleach mix
& pressure-washed throughout, 3-day hell of washing/pumping routines
until clear. HWVR, perverse design (typical of small fbgls
sailboats?) has many inaccessible voids btw liner & hull, etc,. There
are just enough isolated small remnants of damp crud tucked too far
from reasonable access, to gag you even after a week of
heating/drying/blowing/etc. Any kind of vapor bomb or other proposed
solution experienced/known? Tried releasing free chlorine from bleach
using ammonia with her sealed up tight for a day, but not enough to do
the deed.

Stink #2: 25 yrs after construction & long former use/ventilation,
there is still a persistent resin odor from either hull or liner or
both. As I'm not very familiar with fbgls craft big enough for closed
accommodations (only owned 2), is this common &/or is there any
countermeasure?

Naturally, the 2 together are disgusting. My only remaining idea is
to install a bad MSD, since even anerobic cukka would smell better.
;-^)

wrote:

Stink #1: had horrid mouse infestation (I was a dumass & left a
ladder on her). Sprayed all reachable areas w/detergent & bleach mix
& pressure-washed throughout, 3-day hell of washing/pumping routines
until clear. HWVR, perverse design (typical of small fbgls
sailboats?) has many inaccessible voids btw liner & hull, etc,. There
are just enough isolated small remnants of damp crud tucked too far
from reasonable access, to gag you even after a week of
heating/drying/blowing/etc. Any kind of vapor bomb or other proposed
solution experienced/known? Tried releasing free chlorine from bleach
using ammonia with her sealed up tight for a day, but not enough to do
the deed.

I can't help you with stink #2, but a LOT of detergent and water,
followed by thorough rinsing out should get rid of the last of mouse
remains. Use a power washer (Home Depot has a dandy one--1750 psi--for
$179...and it's a very handy bit of equipment to own...I have one) to
get to those areas you can't reach by hand.

Drain and dry out the bilge...use a hand pump, shop vac, sponges,
towels--whatever it takes--to get the last of the water out.

Then spray every surface down with Raritan K.O. (holding tank treatment,
available from WM, B/US etc), which is a live bacteria product that
"eats" the odor causing elements in bacteria. Don't rinse...let it dry.
Leave every hatch open and if possible turn fans on to get plenty of
fresh air into every nook and cranny. That should completely get rid of
the mouse odors...if it doesn't, you missed a spot....which should be
easy to find 'cuz odors are strongest at the their source, and by now
there shouldn't be but one or sources left...if any.

--
Peggie
----------
Peggie Hall
Specializing in marine sanitation since 1987
Author "Get Rid of Boat Odors - A Guide To Marine Sanitation Systems and
Other Sources of Aggravation and Odor"
http://69.20.93.241/store/customer/p...40&cat=&page=1

Peggie Hall wrote in message ...

I can't help you with stink #2, but a LOT of detergent and water,
followed by thorough rinsing out should get rid of the last of mouse
remains. Use a power washer (Home Depot has a dandy one--1750 psi--for
$179...and it's a very handy bit of equipment to own...I have one) to
get to those areas you can't reach by hand.

Drain and dry out the bilge...use a hand pump, shop vac, sponges,
towels--whatever it takes--to get the last of the water out.

Hi Peggy - perhaps you didn't read through my post, where I did all of
that. I also have one of those Husky/HD washers, have used it
extensively & feel it is worth another thread; it's no sub for a real
pressure washer & has a number of annoyances & serious shortcomings
which I feel nix it for any more than immitating a coin-op car wash at
home. It doesn't even wash a car very well. IME most cleaning jobs
may be accomplished by hand both faster & better than with this
washer, though it is useful for a few things. The point of my post &
problem was *inaccessible voids* - which cannot be reached by a wand &
nozzle, or even by the flexible pressure sprayer wand I used for the
detergent & bleach.

After wasting a good deal of time for a week with various methods, and
almost ready to start removing sections of liner, I solved the problem
today in an hour as follows - which may be of some help to another
with a similar situation, though it is not for the faint or heart nor
the thoughtless:

I had been using a fairly powerful plastic AC fan kludged into the fwd
hatch, capable of blowing quite a wind throughout the boat & out the
companionway. It's motor is reasonably well shielded from liquids,
though it is a cheap homeowner thing, and it has no exposed metal
parts. I carefully chose the time of the end of a warm day, with the
ambient air warmer than the now-cooling hull after dark. With every
compartment cover inside still removed, the companionway closed except
for its upper drop board, I simply filled a small sprayer with
straight Clorox, set it for high atomization, and fed it right into
the suction periphery of the fan - using not a small measure of
judgement & observation to avoid soaking the teak bulkheads & etc with
straight bleach. This entailed timing the spray atomization with
equal length breaks to permit dispersal without localized soaking.
Naturally the whole craft had been emptied long before of anything
suceptible to damage including any decorations, photos, unsealed
instruments, cushions etc. This quickly moved atomized bleach into
every space & cranny, where it immediately condensed all over the hull
interior. Wherever the remaining cukka was lodged, it was killed
quite quickly as verified by the mraked change in exhaust odor, and it
took about an hour at 60%RH for the fan to dry her back out well &
disperse most of the Cl gas.

I think the other resinous odor was simply an organic byproduct of the
fungal reactions going on adjacent to glassed areas. She smells as
sweet as a newborn baby now - for the first time in years.

We must be talking about two different washers...'cuz the one I'm
referring to isn't a Huskey, it's a Kaercher...and R 1750 psi it's
definitely a lot more powerful than any car wash wand. I use mine to
take the winter mold and mildew off my house--and it reaches the eaves
on the second floor with no problem...also to take the "green stuff" off
my deck...it blasts it right off. And also got water into any place in
my boat's bilges that any other liquid could get into. However, I
wouldn't even think of using it to wash my car...I'd be afraid it would
damage the paint. I woudln't use a commercial pressure washer on my boat
either...at 15000 psi, they can damage gelcoat or paint.

--
Peggie
----------
Peggie Hall
Specializing in marine sanitation since 1987
Author "Get Rid of Boat Odors - A Guide To Marine Sanitation Systems and
Other Sources of Aggravation and Odor"
http://69.20.93.241/store/customer/p...40&cat=&page=1

Peggie Hall wrote in message . com...
We must be talking about two different washers...'cuz the one I'm
referring to isn't a Huskey, it's a Kaercher...and R 1750 psi it's
definitely a lot more powerful than any car wash wand.

Possibly? Most of us know the economical HD-sold unit as what I
described; it has the same pressure rating BTW. It's unlikely there
is a substantial difference at this low level of unit.

I use mine to
take the winter mold and mildew off my house--and it reaches the eaves
on the second floor with no problem...also to take the "green stuff" off
my deck...it blasts it right off. And also got water into any place in
my boat's bilges that any other liquid could get into. However, I
wouldn't even think of using it to wash my car...I'd be afraid it would
damage the paint. I woudln't use a commercial pressure washer on my boat
either...at 15000 psi, they can damage gelcoat or paint.

Please let me share some things about pressure washers & pressure
washing with you:

Commercial PW's don't operate at 15,000 psi - that is industrial
shipyard waterblasing equip't used in the drydock, and even those are
more limited now over the past 20 years of OSHA & its foreign
equivalents. Pressure rating also means little by itself - the
important matter is the velocity at which the water meets the surface
- i.e., a combination of pressure, nozzle size, pattern, pattern size
& operator technique.

Good PW operation takes training & practice. The effective & proper
application of the jet to a surface to be cleaned is 90 degrees, which
gives the highest impact velocity & is the only way to keep it uniform
throughout strokes. Uniformity is important both for even results &
to avoid damage to the substrate (especially wood). It is similar in
concept to spraying paint. Wood, especially, should *never* be
pressure-washed at any angle but 90 degrees, to prevent or minimize
grain lifting/damage.

A higher pressure & higher-volume (i.e., real-world) pressure washer
does a far better & faster job than these lower-, low-volume consumer
units, not because any higher impact velocity is employed in the
cleaning - it isn't. But a much better-designed nozzle with the
specific pattern needed for the job and the higher *nozzle* pressure
are used to give a much wider sweep, which not only makes the work far
faster but give far more uniform results.

For example, whereas the toy 1750 psi unit on a 10' x 50'
pressure-treated deck that needs real cleaning (weathering or heavy
algae) will only clean 1-1/2" or so per pass on its fan pattern, and
can take 3+ hours (don't ask how I proved it) a real unit will clean a
whole plank width at a time with a much faster stoke - and very
uniform, *without* as much risk of biting into the wood as the toy
unit's nozzle which must be moved more slowly & less uniformly, and
held more closely to the work. This same deck job takes 15 minutes
with the real tool & is much more thorough. The little 1750 unit
makes *more* wood damage due to its slower cleaning speed, at any
impact velocities that qualify as an attempt to pressure-wash. The
small unit is also much more fatiguing to operate, since its wand does
not make enough recoil pressure to balance the outstretched arm as the
real tool does, and must be held far longer.

Whatever you are reaching up high or far away with it (I used the same
or similar unit to knock down a high hornet nest this way while using
it as a window-rinser), this isn't pressure washing, and the same may
be done with other inexpensive types of hose nozzles that don't need
to be powered. The only way you can pressure-wash your house siding
is to be on a ladder or manlift at the same height where you can apply
the spray at 90 degrees near the surface in a controlled, even sweep.
Anything less than this is just hosing it off from a little further
away.

Another problem with these units is their detergent dispenser, which
cannot be metered & which lays out the product very quickly (often
expensive product that is more effective when more dilute, or that
needs to be to avoid damage).

And it is indeed the same sort of pressure delivery as the car washes,
at least those here in the northeast. You needn't fear washing your
car with the 1750 unit, and most who own one mainly use them for it.
However, for cleaning a really dirty vehicle, hand-washing removes
stuck-on crud faster & better than the 1750 PSI washer. I have proven
this several times with my own vehicles. Same rule applies, too:
always perpendicular to the work. Not only will the paint be safe,
but for removing difficult things like baked-on pitch it is much
easier on the paint (but slower) than hand-cleaning. For that matter,
someone who knows how to properly operate a real pressure washer can
safely wash any car with that, too.

There is a lot more that can be said about this kind of unit, but I'll
sum up by saying that though I have one, whenever I have a real
cleaning task to do (such as wood house siding, hull cleaning,
masonry, PT decks etc.), it is far cheaper, faster & better for me to
rent a real unit. For even lighter-duty jobs, a 3-stage 5,000 PSI
unit run at 2,500 - 3,000 is an efficient joy to use.

After a lot of use of several kinds of pressure washers, I am
convinced that using any that have less than a 3-stage pump & cost
less than $1,000 on sale is a false economy, timewise, results-wise
and costwise, for any application. At $40 - $50/day versus the outlay
for the consumer machine divided by this rental rate, one can do
several times the cleaning that the consumer machine will do in its
useful lifetime.

I'm at somewhat of a loss as to how you reach every part of a boat
interior with any kind of water pressure tool, when the wand is
necessarily long and cannot be bent, and there are many inaccessible
voids or other areas not possible to spray directly with a straight
wand. No direct spray = no cleaning. I think the dirt just flies off
at you no matter what you use because of your magnetic personality,
Peggy. ;-^)