Cleaning under the sole

[BillyK]

Have a new to us Catalina 310 which i believe i discovered the reason the PO sold.. She has a leaky tank.. it was very slow at first and i did notice some, but it appeared to be coming from the fuel sender gasket.... but two weeks ago, it let go out of the bottom of the tank into our bilge.

Anyone have any suggestions how to clean the area under the Head, engine, nav station area? Fuel ran all along under there.. Here's what i've done so far to mitigate the fuel spill into the Bilge

1. Pump out tank and bilge
2. remove tank and all fuel lines ( will replace them to just have an entirely new fuel system )
3. Poured 5 gallons of straight simple green mixed with a full bottle of dawn back by where the leak started.
4. chased that an hour later with 5 gallons of hot water
5. pumped out all of it from the bilge into 5 gallon buckets (sealed them up and will drop them off at our municipal place)
6. poured another gallon of straight simple green followed with 3 gallons of hot water
7. pumped that all out. and then stuffed fuel soak rags into the bilge where i can reach.
8. Dried off everything i could reach under the sole.
9. hopelessly looked for ways to get the water/soap/fuel out from under the head/engine..

other than shoving a hose under there and blasting it, anyone know of any tools or techniques to get under there to get the rest out? i almost want to tank my high pressure hose and blast under there.... i noticed it has almost a mud substance all over the hull there, i'd really like to clean all that out as i'm going through this. it has to be a source of smell for sure when things get damp/moldy..

i had a Catalina 30 before that i could reach all sections between the sole and the hull... this is a new problem for me..

Thanks All...

 

[dlochner]

Assuming the boat is on the hard, it may not be perfectly level, that will let water pool in places it won't normally pool. Once the boat is back in the water, boat movement will help some of the water find its way to the bilge. Depending on how foul the bilge water is, you may want to disconnect the bilge pump and use a shop vac to get the water out.

Also use oil absorbent pads to collect the oil.

I've also used one of these to capture oil and diesel you can also buy just the microbes to sprinkle around.

Clean Waters Solutions Shark Microbial Bilge Pads

Function: Oil-Eating Bilge Pads Eliminate Oil and Odors in Bilges (3 Months), Resulting Natural By-Product is Used by Fish and Vegetation as a Food Source, Applications: Boats up to 40 feet (Sold Individually)

www.defender.com

Finally, the easiest way to separate oil/diesel and water is to store it in gallon jugs, let the oil float to the top and then freeze the jug. The water will freeze and the oil can be decanted out. Some old school garages will have waste oil furnaces and they will accept the oil.

 

[Hayden Watson]

I had a similar cleanup when a remote oil filter blew an o-ring and dumped a gallon of engine oil into the bilge and needed to sail home in about 40 knots. It made one heck of a mess in the shoulders of the bilge. Did the same initial cleanup you described to get the easy to read stuff. Then I removed all of the cushions and other soft stuff and went after it with a pressure washer with a degreasing soap. After that, I sprayed everything down with Fabreeze and let it do its magic. Everything gets wet which is why I removed the soft stuff but I was able to get the bilge completely clean and no longer have any oil or diesel smells.
Good luck on the cleanup.

 

[BillyK]

The Shark Bilge pad is interesting..

Then I removed all of the cushions and other soft stuff and went after it with a pressure washer with a degreasing soap.
Good luck on the cleanup.

i wonder if it would be worth using laundry detergent or dishwasher detergent since that wont get foamy..

 

[Hayden Watson]

I would recommend not using anything that will get foamy because it increases the volume to remove. There are degreasers that can be used with a pressure washer that are low suddsing. You might be able to use Simple Green for this.

 

[capta]

Some years back, I took over a 100' triple screw, twin genset, aluminum crew boat which we turned into a dinner cruise and tour boat. Apparently, the previous crew(s) had been just draining the oil from all five engines into the bilges and letting the bilge pumps pump most of it overboard.
I had a prospective crew member (a punk rocker with a half shaved head), using dish soap, buckets, and rags clean both engine rooms. It took her over three full working days, but she did a great job and I hired her on permanently. I guess you really shouldn't judge people by the misic they like. lol

 

[Tom J]

Some years back, I took over a 100' triple screw, twin genset, aluminum crew boat which we turned into a dinner cruise and tour boat. Apparently, the previous crew(s) had been just draining the oil from all five engines into the bilges and letting the bilge pumps pump most of it overboard.
I had a prospective crew member (a punk rocker with a half shaved head), using dish soap, buckets, and rags clean both engine rooms. It took her over three full working days, but she did a great job and I hired her on permanently. I guess you really shouldn't judge people by the misic they like. lol

I worked as crew on a 65' steel hulled commercial vessel. A certain amount of oil in the bilge was to be expected, since we ran 4 vintage diesels night and day. At one point, it became obvious that there was more oil than water in the bilge. The 2,000 gallon fuel tank had sprung a leak, and it was a long dirty job getting all the fuel in the bilge pumped into 50 gallon barrels, about 10 barrels I think.

 

[senang]

Haven’t tried it yet but laundry softener seems to be the best product to get rid of diesel fuel smells in the boat.

 

[capta]

Haven’t tried it yet but laundry softener seems to be the best product to get rid of diesel fuel smells in the boat.

Don't folks who live in Monaco hire us lesser beings to do that sort of thing? lol