Wax on?
It’s once again time to mine the collective resources that our blog readership provides. Assuming you were in our situation and going to be hauling out your boat to store in the tropics for an undermined amount of time but not immediately applying several coats of expensive bottom paint, what would you do to prepare/protect the hull? What about the topsides? Inquiring minds want to know.
Rebecca waxing the topsides back in Canada.
Note our boat’s original name, and the hoodie!
I would put the boat back in the water and lend it to a loyal blog reader for the time being 🙂
cheers
We have considered that. 🙂
Ooooo…. Andy, you are reading my mind!
Nothing will protect the exterior except a cover, and that is not cost feasible.
The big worry is the interior of the boat. Mold, mildew, insects, vermin.
If anything edible is left on the boat, be certain that insects and rats will find their way into your boat.
We purchased our boat in the BVI and the boat had been left unoccupied for months.
The previous owner had left a box of herbal tea and a container of bread crumbs. Both were filled with weevils. The weevils had followed the electrical lines and cables throughout the boat (have no idea why). Took great effort to get rid of those pests.
Our thought is that we will discard all dried good, spices, etc. BUT leave canned food on the boat for the 6 weeks that we will be absent to the States and to pick up the other boat. Then, when we are back in Grenada with the Leopard, we can transfer the food to it. What are your thoughts (or everyone’s thoughts) on that plan?
If you’re gone just 6 weeks, couldn’t you store things like spices in a metal container to retrieve with the canned goods later?
Possibly. The spices are old though so we plan to simply get rid of what we have and start anew on the other boat.
Finally something I can comment on, storage. My boat was always kept on the hard, in a rack at the marina. Fortunately, through blind luck, the food was never raided, although it was factory sealed items. But old boat food tastes like boat…blech.
The problem we had was mold/mildew. After a spring cleaning with icky chems, a few weeks later return found the funk growing back. I will note that we would leave windows cracked for ventilation. After the second round of growth, I went old school. We closed up the boat for the next storage, and I unloaded a can of Lysol throughout the boat. About a month’s later return found the boat in the same condition we left her. Success!
So to sum it up, coat the insides with Lysol as you walk out for the last time.
Can you get a DriZair contraption and filler down there? That is what we always left inside our boat when we weren’t on it… and there’s nowhere more damp than the west coast of BC… we never had mold.
http://www.drizair.com/
We’re up in Southeast Alaska and I can’t agree more with the disposable dessicant comment (DriZair being just one option there) we have a number of them stashed around the boat and keep them onboard year round. We just cap them off or otherwise move them to a safe location while under way. With the long winters here our boat is covered 5-6 months of the year and between these and Cameron’s comment about liberal doses of lysol on the way out the door; we usually don’t have any issues inside.
My one comment if you do use this stuff would be to make sure you have large capacity containers as on the few occasions when it does reach into the 80’s (F) here; the stuff goes quickly and the normal counter-top sizes probably won’t last six weeks unattended in the tropics. One of the local stores up here carries a disposable bucket model that holds a significant amount. A couple of those ought to do ya.
I will check around to see if they are available.
We were on a boat in England that was on the hard for storage/repair. The hulls were waxed, but not buffed. I didn’t ask the owner but I assume it was to protect them.
Thank, Lorry.
For our winter storage we always wax the topside, nothing done to hull. Its more protection than not and yes we still have to do it again before launch. Inside my wife always places containers of baking soda all over the place. I assumed it was so I would knock them over, but apparently it helps with mold\mildew and pest. Which I cant say we ever had any.
David
We had no mold/mildew issues back in Canada either.
I wish I had some useful advice but unfortunately both times I left my boat unattended for months at a time I had major clean up and clean out to get her back comfy. Absolutely NO FOOD, I’d leave roach traps around even if you’ve never seen one, they may go for a walk about within the yard. I will mention as I did before the best thing I ever did for leaving my boat in the tropics was leaving it in the hands of some competent and trustworthy friends to use as they wished. I signed him on as the new captain and when I got back 7 months later my boat was better than I left it. Their appreciation of the trust I gave in them was a win, win for both of us. It’s a tough call for sure.
You’re right, tough call. Boats do like to be used more than they do sitting on land. Then again, we see a number of people who can’t take care of their own boats let alone someone else’s.
Mike,
We left our boat at Grenada Marine from Dec. 2011 to Nov. 2012, all closed up. No mold or mildew, maybe we were just lucky. I’d definitely stuff every thru hull with a sock, or duct tape it shut. I would wax the hull and leave the was on, let the yard buff it out when you put the boat back in the water. We did have a frog infestation, the little guys lived under our dinghy (on the tramp), and in the anchor locker, not sure what I could have done about that.
Eric
Frogs, eh?
I am kinda undecided about what to do with our RIB. My initial though was to remove the trampoline. If I do that though, I’ll have to leave the dinghy on the davits.
Mike – perhaps you didn’t notice, but many cruisers that leave their boats on the hard in Chaguaramas put wax on – but don’t polish. Probably 50% of the seasonals apply wax before leaving, and then polish when they get back (6 to 7 months later). The objective is to keep OFF the grit and grime that you can get on your boat FROM OTHER BOATERS. Unless you are able to control who your neighbours are, you should assume that you will have boats that are parked next to you, and that some of these people will grind/sand off their bottom paint – and maybe more. The objective of putting on the wax is to protect your topsides from exactly this. In fact, you might even consider this approach for your raised cabin, deck and any other areas. I’m assuming that ZTC will be unused for 12 months or so.
Thanks, Wade.
One other thing, when they put you on the hard, make sure you are angled so your scuppers drain well.
Eric
Wilco!