Almost in tears, but will be ok

[Speedling]

Some of you may not realize it but I have only had my boat out once thisyear. Working two jobs has taken it's toll once again. I almost wish I had my exciter again so I could fit in the garage with it. My boat is a horrid moldy mess. I have been getting up at 4 am and bed at 11 pm leaves one very stressed out mad at the verge of breaking.
So now that the hours have slowed, I get one hour to unwrap the boat.

Mold.
Everywhere.
We are doing our best to clean up but my goodness this is bad. I don't drink. I'm drinking. Everything is out of the boat now.

Wish me luck. Saturday we head out to the big lake and I work both jo bs tomorrow yet.

Motors ran like champs.
Batteries seemed charged.

Wife ordered me a tower, so hopefully we don't need to replace seats because $ ain't there.

 

[itsdgm]

Bummer. Hang in there. Hopefully you can get it all cleaned up for the weekend.

 

[tdonoughue]

Oh, no!!! That is awful!

Ok, breathe. Keep breathing. Everything will be fine. Take it easy. Slow and steady wins the mold race. Methodical. Bag what you are going to toss. Be careful with that breathing thing around the boat. Might want a mask. In that situation I think I would be breaking out the bleach. Might take some toll on the stitching, etc., but might be worth it in this case.

Good luck.

 

[Murf'n'surf]

Hit it all with Spray 9 before stepping up to bleach. It might be enough to git er dun.

 

[dan144k]

idea, would insurance cover the mold damage?

 

[GTBRMC]

Oh, man! Very sorry to hear this! Take it slow, work through it, like the others have posted. You'll get past it.
Assume it is very bad to breathe it in, as it might be.

Best of luck sorting it out.

 

[tdonoughue]

Good thought on the insurance. Take pictures of everything, just in case you decide to/have to go that route.

Or, for looking at 10 years from now to say, "remember that?"

 

[GiddYupJoe]

When I started reading your post @Speedling i thought it was going to lead to you getting rid of the boat! Glad I kept reading. Have a fun relaxing outing. Sounds like ya deserve it! I think a cheers is in order!

 

[Geiger41]

F the boat. Drink some beers and have someone detail that thing tomorrow.

 

[Noko]

I'd try a Lysol bathroom cleaner with bleach. Take everything out that you can and spray it, then rinse it off. You can cut the bleach if you want with a spray bottle of soapy water after you spray the Lysol. You'd be surprised how quick mold dies when hit with a bleach cleaner. Inside the boat is tougher but almost all of the compartments drain, well, not sure on your boat. So maybe you can spray and rinse. Good luck.

 

[njmr2fan]

Wet and Forget.

http://www.acehardware.com/product/...&KPID=18508736&kpid=18508736&pla=pla_18508736

This stuff is great. Its works. Its cheap. It keeps mold and mildew from returning.

 

[RiverRat]

It's cleanable. Magic erasers are awesome.

 

[RiverRat]

But seriously! Welcome to boating season! I'm still kinda-sorta waiting for summer to show up in SE Wisconsin...

 

[sysinu]

Do what you can to not have the mold be an issue for now (spray what is needed down). Deal with all of it after this week.


You got this. Just submarine her a few times and make sure your scupper is in good order.

Really though... I hope the best for you. We are all rooting for you to have a good end result. Start with the pressure washer and a really wide angle bit and then I would say move to some VERY DILUTED bleach mixture and get as much of the mold out the back as possible.

I have heard that putting backing soda boxes all over the place can help some. I usually hide 4 arm&hammer backing soda packets in the boat just to absorb moisture when she is sitting for a while. I doubt that would help the main area's, but I figure it helps the insides a little. Makes my life jackets that I never use and my head compartment smell nice and fresh though.

 

[pagekl]

I deal with mold every time after the winter. I use the starbrite from West Marine and it brings the boat back to life. The first time I had mold, I had gotten my boat shrink wrapped and said never again, but the shrink wrap wasn't the problem. I had water sitting in the boat somewhere. I thought the interior was ruined, but the starbrite worked really well. Spray it on and let it sit for a few minutes. Wipe off and bam, looks as good as new.

 

[Speedling]

Well, I clearly overreacted a bit, but it was an extremely stressful day.
My wife got most of it out with vinyl sauce stuff, but there is a lotta mold on things like the subwoofer box, lifejackets, engine bay etc. that just is gonna take a lotta time and effort to fix. Some of the seats have like a black dirty look from the mold leaving little marks on the seats. It spit polished just ok I guess. So down the road I'll need new seats anyways due to previous owner leaving a couple tears on seams, but for now, I guess it all stays. We will see how she runs this weekend and make the most of it.

 

[dan144k]

https://jetboaters.net/posts/107141/

This thread had some stuff to restore vinyl. Never used it, just Rembert reading about the stuff.

 

[Steelerville]

Don't worry, use Starbrite mildew cleaner, not cheap but spray on wash off. For really stubborn spots, seen this one a boating show a few weeks back. Mix bleach, baking soda and comet into a paste, leave on seats for about 5 minutes, rub lightly, stain is gone. I use this for leaf stains. Works great. Leaving in florida, mildew is such a pita.

 

[PEARCE]

While you're out on the boat in the sun a lot of the spots in the seats should fade out. A hot and sunny day is your friend in this case. Good luck with your cleanup and enjoy your much deserved lake day.

 

[justason]

Don't worry, use Starbrite mildew cleaner, not cheap but spray on wash off. For really stubborn spots, seen this one a boating show a few weeks back. Mix bleach, baking soda and comet into a paste, leave on seats for about 5 minutes, rub lightly, stain is gone. I use this for leaf stains. Works great. Leaving in florida, mildew is such a pita.

Do you know the ratios here? My neighbors having a mold stain battle currently so this thread is a good read.

Hang in there @Speedling 5 mins on the water and it'll be history!
Do you have electricity where its stored? In addition to running lights in the enclosed spaces I recently installed this to help with dampness

Keeps the garage from molding too