SailNet Community banner
  • SailNet is a forum community dedicated to Sailing enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about sailing, modifications, classifieds, troubleshooting, repairs, reviews, maintenance, and more!

Do liner boats get mold in between the liner and the hull?

7K views 20 replies 12 participants last post by  Don L 
#1 ·
Silly question I suppose, but I haven't got a liner myself, and I have enough mold as it is, can't imagine trying to get to it between a liner and the hull!
 
#5 ·
If you can see mold, you need to wash it off and dry completely. Chemicals like bleach and ammonia work (NEVER use together, the gas will literally kill you). Some say vinegar works, but you better air it out well. I use diluted vinegar to clean my eisenglass dodger and it stinks outside for hours, can't imagine down below. Tea tree oil is the latest environmental mold killer and I find the odor acceptable. You can buy it in a spray bottle.

Kanberra gel, placed in the cabin will keep mold from returning, but its expensive. I use it and started to get lazy and let it run out. Sure enough, boat odors began to return. I loaded right up again, particularly before I put her away for the winter. Its slightly less expensive to buy the refills and reuse the containers.
 
#7 ·
Ventilate very well while you're doing it and dilute the bleach. A cup in a gallon of water is more than enough. Then you have to rinse off well, as chlorine is a corrosive and will eat any rubber or metal you leave it on for a long period of time.

The real problem with mold cleaning are the spots you can't see. If there is a colony behind a bulkhead or under a sole somewhere, it will just continue to grow onto the surfaces you just cleaned. If you have a real problem, you essential have to strip the boat down to really get on top of it.
 
#8 ·
Throw in a bunch of dryer sheets between the hull and liner. In shopping for dryer sheets, look at the ingredients. Select the one that has the highest % of "quaternary ammonium chloride", otherwise known as quat salts.
Why?
because a half oz. of the liquid will shut down a septic tank.
Don't ask me how I know.

dick
 
#9 ·
Mainesail: I'm sure you must have some good examples of this happening, is this a chronic issue for boats with liners/how is it dealt with?

Huck, I'm not sure how well it works but the concorbium mold treatment stuff is supposed to be a surface coating that encapsulates the mold as best as I can tell from digging around their product nonsense about "crushing" mold. The main advantages I see with it is that it seems that it creates a layer that stops mold growing, rather than just killing it once as bleach does.


Minniewaska: That was the basis for my question, how the heck would you get to mold in between the hull and liner if it started growing there? cleaning my hull has been aggravating enough

FBK: I thought those were supposed to be bad for you? Someone warned me off using them, it seemed otherwise like a fairly logical approach, I was planning to chuck them in various lockers.
 
#10 ·
Restoration companies will fumigate your house, after removing everything and surface cleaning, when you have a mold infestation problem. I suspect it is something that requires a license and is bad for you.

It would be something worth thinking about, particularly if going up on the hard.
 
#12 ·
I would consider an ozone fumigation as a one and done method. But, I understand it is very bad for rubber parts and hoses. Not sure how much damage is done in one shot, but I think you need to seal up the boat and let it stay ozone saturated for days to work. The nice thing about them, is once you've aerated your boat again, its gone. Unlike chemicals. You can rent ozone generators.
 
#13 ·
Here is something to consider: Humans have been in environments with mold for all of our history. There is mold almost everywhere. People who have sensitivities to mold could have serious reactions (just as people with peanut allergy would have to peanuts). There are a few particularly dangerous molds, however, they are rare.

I would rather be sleeping in my mold infested boat than in my mold infested house!
 
#17 ·
True, but we've also spent a large part of our history crapping in our drinking water...:laugher

It was more curiousity than anything, but I do try to minimize the mold growth in my boat nevertheless, if nothing else it smells bad and stains things.
I was wondering if it was something I should be cautious about in future if I were to buy a newer boat with a liner.
 
#15 ·
I had looked at an Endevour 2 years ago. The boat needed major work & that didn't bother me but I decided to walk because it was a mold fest. Being a boat built on a pan, I had no idea how you would remedy a problem like that.
 
#18 ·
It was more curiousity than anything, but I do try to minimize the mold growth in my boat nevertheless, if nothing else it smells bad and stains things.
I was wondering if it was something I should be cautious about in future if I were to buy a newer boat with a liner.
Hidden mold is only one reason to be weary of liners, IMHO. I just don't like the idea that there is some part of the boat that is not accessable.
 
#21 ·
Depends on the how the liner is installed to the hull. On my boat there is no path under the liner and the liners is completely bonded to the hull.

But I would think it is easy to kill off mold that would get under the liner between it and the hull compared to so of the other spots that mold grows you know all those places in the boat you can not even see.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top