pressure washer

[Bob greenfield]

Do any owners use a pressure washer to clean the topside of their boats. Any recommendations for brands and maximum PSI?

 

[Steve Dion]

Not the best idea.

Bob:This is really not the best idea. Crazy Dave just made a post about this for the trailer sailors. High pressure washing can harm the gelcoat. The other problem is that it can also wash out the caulking under any hardware (winches, cluthes, rails, cleats, tracks, stanchions etc). So if you must do it you need to be very careful and use as little pressure as possible (also remembering that MAYBE the pressure washer is not going to take off whatever you are trying to remove).My first recommendation is good old soap and water, some of the deck/non-skid cleaners seem to do a very good job too. If you have specific marks a little softscrub on the non-skid will sometimes help. I have tried the Island Girl Pink on non-skid that had sap and spider crap in it. It was the only thing that worked.So I would try everything else before power washing unless you are going to redo the non-skid .

 

[Mark F. Arena]

I plan to "douche" my interior this spring.

Peace and Love:Now that I've stripped the interior of my H34 for the winter, my thoughts turn to spring. My boat needs a thorough cleaning. Dirt, mildew, and yuk everywhere. I am thinking combo steam/pressure. Also gonna lift all of the plywood bunk covers. Any thoughts?Marcus

 

[Steve Dion]

Trapped water in the liner.

Mark:The problem you may encounter with getting a lot of water in the interior is the fact that it may get trapped in the liner. This is one of the biggest complaints about a liner in the boat. If the water does not drain into the bilge, it may just help the boat breed mold and mildew.I would suggest that you wipe all of the fiberglass and wood down with a mild bleach solution to kill any spores. Then you can use a citrus cleaner for all of the wood. Next use something like lemon/orange oil on all of the wood surfaces except the sole (makes it very slippery).For the fabric surfaces, you may want to consider having a professional upolstery cleaner do the job, or rent a unit and clean it yourself.When the boat looks clean you can muck out the bilge areas and you should be done on the inside.