OK, So I have an Islander 41 center cockpit, something like 2 acres of deck. With our wet winter in CA, I had black mold, green algae and 2 months worth of just general gunk. The admiral got out the vinegar, a scrub brush and toothpicks. She spent about 2 days working on the non-skid to get a 4' by 4' area mostly clean. As is mentioned nothing works better than a lot of hard work. However being that she doesn't like to work that hard and I'm generally lazy, I looked for a better approach.
The stinkpotters in my marina all use power washers. So I visited my favorite HD store and found this Ryobi 1,600-PSI 1.2-GPM Electric Pressure Washer. Fits in a cockpit locker and has a long cord, to reach anywhere on the boat. I spent the next 3 hours cleaning decks, including the area the admiral worked on. After 3 hours all of the dirt, mold and algae was gone and I was back to a white deck.
I found that just making several passes in multiple directions from about 6-10 inches works well. Besides the small size of the unit I also liked that it was relatively low power (only 1600 PSI max). Do be careful on unfinished grayed teak, I found that it also cleaned that very nicely and have been told I can't clean it with the power washer. It will degrade the teak. But I'll probably commit another act of sacrilege which I'll cover in another post when I clean the teak and give it 3 coats of Cetol so I can do a 5' finish. After all she's a 40 year old sailboat, not a showboat.
Good luck.
The stinkpotters in my marina all use power washers. So I visited my favorite HD store and found this Ryobi 1,600-PSI 1.2-GPM Electric Pressure Washer. Fits in a cockpit locker and has a long cord, to reach anywhere on the boat. I spent the next 3 hours cleaning decks, including the area the admiral worked on. After 3 hours all of the dirt, mold and algae was gone and I was back to a white deck.
I found that just making several passes in multiple directions from about 6-10 inches works well. Besides the small size of the unit I also liked that it was relatively low power (only 1600 PSI max). Do be careful on unfinished grayed teak, I found that it also cleaned that very nicely and have been told I can't clean it with the power washer. It will degrade the teak. But I'll probably commit another act of sacrilege which I'll cover in another post when I clean the teak and give it 3 coats of Cetol so I can do a 5' finish. After all she's a 40 year old sailboat, not a showboat.
Good luck.
