Pressure washing below decks to remove odors

[Peggie Hall/HeadMistress]

Oil/diesel in bilges...

Biological bilge cleaners do work, but they take forever--weeks or even longer if the bilge is cold, 'cuz bacterial activity gets increasingly sluggish below 70 F...so sluggish below 60 F that they're useless...and become completely dormant below 40 F. Bilge pillows/pads are most effective way to remove it, but they must be used BEFORE any bilge cleaner, detergent, or other cleaner is used, or they won't work. Bilge pillows/pads soak up oil but repel water...detergents emulsify oil in water, causing the pads to repel it instead of soaking it up. Position the pillows or pads, add a little clean water. Wait a day or two...then dispose of the pads in the containers provided by the marina for oil disposal. Now you can clean the bilge with detergent and water.

 

[VIEXILE]

"Simple Green" Cleaner

Hinckley Yachts uses stuff called "Simple Green" biosafe cleaner and it seems to work fairly well. What with all the old B40's and boats they maintain, diesel smells are typical and need to be abated. My fuel tank in my Bristol 35 pinholed winter before last in Maine. I live in the Caribbean, and didn't know about it for months. The cockpit locker scuppers filled with leaves and dust, snow and rain bypassed the scuppers to the bilge, lifted 20+ gallons of diesel about 2" above the cabin sole before it was discovered. All cushions were tossed, but the simple green and some citrus cleaner and a serious dousing with clorox in the integral water tank, with some bicarb of soda scrubbing afterwards got rid of all the orders. The old girl is down here with me now, dressed up like a Manhattan whore and tricked out with all new stuff and stainless. She smells good too. KW