Watering your boat

[Malahide]

Another beautiful day here in Seattle. If we have many more of the these then the decks are going to suffer.

We rigged a sprinkler system, now ideally this would be spraying salt water however we are in the lake...

Has anyone had any luck with laying down some rock salt?

 

[dhays]

I don't think that would work with a sprinkler system. For our normal drizzle, it would probably work great, but I think with a sprinkler you would flush the salt down the scuppers.

 

[markpierce]

Why would one spray salt water on a boat? I've always washed my boat with fresh water. Who wants a build-up of salt crystals on their boat?

 

[Phil Fill]

In the summer months I lay a silver tarp several inches off the deck to s allow air under and shade the deck. Occasion have used a soaker hose, multi tiny holed to cool the deck. Right now still have the heavy white winter tarp on to protect from the cold rain and snow. We will not be back on until mid June. The boatnamny alarm showed the salon temp was 81 degree?

 

[GFC]

Am I missing something here? We live in the desert on the eastern side of WA where temps routinely run in the 90's to 105.


What is the purpose of spraying your boat? I'm just curious because I've never heard of that or of adding salt.

 

[rochepoint]

Why would one spray salt water on a boat?

The answer to that is those with wood decks, it helps preserve them and keeping them lightly damp stops shrinkage..............

 

[CPseudonym]

Especially a wood deck on a wood boat. And a Malahide is one hell of a nice wood boat.

Salting the bilge I'm familiar with but salting the deck I thought was done with a mop and bucket. If saltwater is not available mixing salt into the fresh is done prior to swab duty. Purpose of the salt is to preserve the inner wood anywhere there may be water intrusion.

 

[hollywood8118]

This cracks me up.... everyone up here bitches to beat the band about the wet winter ..then a few days of sun and you guys are really that worried about your teak decks??

I'm just happy that mine are dry for a change to help get rid of all the green growth we were plagued with this winter..

HOLLYWOOD

 

[Ted]

Up here in BC the fishermen used to put salt lick blocks on their cabin tops
to make the rain water salty as it ran over the boats. Salt preserves the wood.

Ted

 

[Gulf Comanche]

Especially a wood deck on a wood boat. And a Malahide is one hell of a nice wood boat.

Salting the bilge I'm familiar with but salting the deck I thought was done with a mop and bucket. If saltwater is not available mixing salt into the fresh is done prior to swab duty. Purpose of the salt is to preserve the inner wood anywhere there may be water intrusion.

CP: Why salt the bilge?

 

[CPseudonym]

CP: Why salt the bilge?

Prevents rot

 

[FF]

"Salt preserves the wood."

"Prevents rot"

NO ,,,Its not the salt that helps,,, its the water.

As wood goes from saturated to dry it passes thru the moisture range that allows dry rot.

Have a dry chunk of wood it wont rot.,,keep it saturated and it wont rot.

Salt was the attempt to keep low cost fishing boats (much green wood) from rotting between uses.

Most of todays boats with wood parts die from leaks which saturate the wood and then slowly dry out , over and over . Windows,, PH , Fly bridge deck ,,,

A soaker hose from the garden center might keep a genuine all teak deck from shrinking , but it will probably just speed the demise of a teak overlay on plywood..TT style.

 

[caltexflanc]

Having a teak decked boat in sunny and very warm places for about 7 years, this seems pretty darn silly to me.

 

[bayview]

Ships were built with salt shelves just under the deck so that rain washed it down the hull sides. Is it just the bilge that needs salt?

Imo you don't help things by wetting with fresh water. I don't know if thorough drying once in a while is better or not.

 

[kulas44]

Our type of "rot" requires distilled water, like dew or rain, to proliferate. It cant grow in saltwater or even fresh dock water, especially municipal water.

 

[RT Firefly]

Greetings,
Mr. 44. It's not really the "type" of water that promotes rot, it's the bugs (microorganisms), mold and fungus. Salt is a natural sterilizer which minimizes growth of same. Likewise, municipal water has chlorine in it, another sterilizer. Eventually that chlorine will evaporate and you're left with bug fuel. Salt tends to stick around unless washed away by fresh water.

Oh, and rainwater is NOT distilled water.

 

[Nomad Willy]

Good for the wood but there's more to a wood boat than wood.

Think of all the metal that holds the wood boat together. And before you dismiss that there's a lot of it and it's very important not to mention expensive to replace. Best advice I've heard so far is the shade protection.

 

[Jeff F]

Back in my youth I lived in Florida for a while on a big ketch that had been built in England in the 1930s. We had awnings but also a daily routine of wetting down the teak decks with saltwater. The owner's claim was that this prevented leaks due to shrinkage of the teak decks. Our tool for doing this was a bucket on a rope

Haven't thought about this since, but I can see some merit in this routine.

 

[kulas44]

You are correct RT, except I didnt say "type of water" I said type of rot. And yes when the chlorine evaps out of the muni water our type of rot can then use the moisture to continue its life cycle. Salt lasts much longer. The point is that boat rot must have a few things, fresh water (as in rain, dew, not just any water), the right temp and wood. missing any of those and it cant live. Wetting the decks with saltwater, or regularly washing with bleach/water helps to prevent the fungus from getting a foot hold, and slows the growth of existing rot. Good ventilation in enclosed areas is a big help as it dries the moisture that rot needs.

 

[RT Firefly]

Greetings,
Mr. 44. I realize you stated type of "rot" BUT you also qualified type of water "...distilled water, like dew or rain..." as well. Just trying to clarify that ANY water will promote rot unless it contains a retardant (salt, chlorine etc.)

 

[kulas44]

Correct, and that type of H2O would be a precipitate, not city water or dock water or lake water or saltwater. I misspoke when I said "distilled".

 

[sdowney717]

Another beautiful day here in Seattle. If we have many more of the these then the decks are going to suffer.

We rigged a sprinkler system, now ideally this would be spraying salt water however we are in the lake...

Has anyone had any luck with laying down some rock salt?

It costs more, but Ethylene Glycol antifreeze the green stuff, takes a longer time to dry out of the wood.
And it kills rot fungus. Maybe mix it 50-50 with water. Although it is better sprayed in the bilge, a deck gets too much sun. For wood bilges add in Borax roach powder, that will kill everything that eats wood. Borax powder dissolves in hot water or alcohol. I have sprayed dissolved borax on wood, it soaks in then when it dries, the wood has both borax and EG antifreeze inside the wood and nothing can live in that. EG is a type of poisonous alcohol.
Neither one has any odor, no smell lingers in the boat.

 

[oscar]

The garden center has little bottles that go in line with your garden hose to spread fertilizer etc.....

Bet you can rig something to add salt to the sprinkler.

 

[caltexflanc]

Wow, talk about thread drift! Let's get back to teak decks, shall we?

IMO and experience, washing teak decks with clean salt water is good. Gratuitously wetting them because it is sunny is silly.

 

[sdowney717]

I have a saltwater wash down pump I almost never use it. I could but do not go to the boat everyday to spray on the teak wood.

 

[kulas44]

Not really seeing to much thread drift here. Wetting decks was the originall thought. Still there.