caltexflanc
Guru
Interesting. I've been on a lot of boats with a lot of interior teak and other wood paneling, but like others here, have never really noticed an teak or tung oil odor. For instance various types of oil, especially tung are popular to treat the extensive afromosia paneling on classic Hatteras boats.
Now that's not to say I also haven't been on a lot of smelly boats... mildew, stagnant bilge water, gunky sumps, oil, diesel, holding tank odors. Older, lower priced, at-best-modestly maintained trawlers and sail boats seem particularly vulnerable. As Psneeld points out, seldom used boats that are shut up for long periods almost all develop some smell. That includes old Hatts too that have not been maintained or used; there is something called "That Hatteras Smell" which is a combination of stale bilge, sump and seawater heads. One of our checklist items when boat shopping was "no smells". The Po of our boat was a fanatic about this and we were too in tracking down any new little smells and eliminating the root cause. But because the boat got a lot of use, none of that stale air issue ever developed.
Now that's not to say I also haven't been on a lot of smelly boats... mildew, stagnant bilge water, gunky sumps, oil, diesel, holding tank odors. Older, lower priced, at-best-modestly maintained trawlers and sail boats seem particularly vulnerable. As Psneeld points out, seldom used boats that are shut up for long periods almost all develop some smell. That includes old Hatts too that have not been maintained or used; there is something called "That Hatteras Smell" which is a combination of stale bilge, sump and seawater heads. One of our checklist items when boat shopping was "no smells". The Po of our boat was a fanatic about this and we were too in tracking down any new little smells and eliminating the root cause. But because the boat got a lot of use, none of that stale air issue ever developed.