Moldy Old Boat with a Hint of Sour Bilge

You may have read my previous post where I had tried Formby’s lemon oil and had less than fantastic results. Some months ago, I ran across the blog of a Gulf pilothouse owner who was touting the wonders of another brand, who’s name I forget.  So during the summer, I had occasion to need to entertain the girls while I did some other work.  I gave them each a rag and some of the new magic potion and they enthusiastically went to work dousing every surface in the cabin, wood or not, in lemon oil. The boat was literally dripping in lemon oil, but I figured it couldn’t hurt anything.  A few weeks later, I checked on it and was greeted with a fairly pleasant, in the context of musty old boats, odor. It had performed quite a bit better than the Formby’s.  

Fast forward a few months.  We had 12 inches of rain at the boat in the course of a week according to the bucket in the cockpit.  I entered the cockpit and was greeted with the very strong odor of moldy old boat with a hint of sour bilge!  Several leaks had gotten worse, so the humidity inside was very high.  The little Peltier junction dehumidifier just couldn’t keep up.  Upon closer inspection, every unvarnished wooden surface, which is almost every wooden surface, was fuzzy and green! 

Interestingly, the varnished surfaces were not moldy and didn’t harbor any odor. I’m now about 30% complete with an interior varnish job.

Musty Old Boat With a Hint of Lemon

Well that lasted about a week.  Actually two, but about two years less than I was hoping for.  It was warm on Sunday and Sojourn’s cabin was about 80 degrees.  I opened the companion way and was greeted with the familiar odor of musty old boat with a hint of diesel, albeit with slightly less diesel and a hint of lemon.  

I’m dismayed to report that lemon oil was very short lived.  The faded color of the wood has largely returned as well.  Hopefully Rebecca Whitman's advise on this will be better than Don Casey’s.  That said, the lemon oil took about an hour.  Proper oiling will take a lot longer. I guess you get what you work for.

Lemony Fresh

Since day one, as I step down Sojourn’s companion way, I am always greeted with the unpleasant odor of well…… musty old boat with a hint of diesel.  Sojourn is 36 years old, leaks like most 36 year old boats, and her tired old MD7a leaked from every place imaginable, so I guess this shouldn’t come as a surprise. 

I’ve changed out the leaky old Volvo, flushed the bilge and washed the interior with simple green.  It all helped a little, and has been getting better over time, but it still was not satisfying. A couple of weeks ago, I bought a copy of This Old Boat by Don Casey.  In there he suggested wiping down the interior woodwork with plain old lemon oil.

Why not?  I found some Formby’s lemon oil at my favorite neighborhood hardware store and wiped down every piece of wood, oiled or varnished, on Sojourn’s interior. Then next day, I opened the companion way and Voila! Like changing a painting, musty old boat with a hint of diesel has been replaced with Grandma Audrey’s den. 

It wasn’t exactly what I had in mind, but it is a fantastic improvement. I had been planning on varnishing the interior and hadn’t given much thought to what it would do visually. I wasn’t  really expecting much of a transformation, so I didn’t take before photo’s.  It was such a striking difference that I did snap a couple of quick after photos.  If it stays, I’ll likely not bother with the varnish.