Moldy dinghy handles & oar mounts

[healhustler]

I spent most of the day cleaning the mold off my Walker Bay inflatable and thanks mostly to those Mr. Clean white scrubbing pads, she’s looking good. Trouble is that the heavy rubber hardware like lifting handles (as in photo below) and oar mounts won’t come clean. I tried the white scrub pads with two different mold removers, simple green, comet, and even acetone but they remain terribly discolored.

Anybody find something that works? Thanks in advance.

 

[Comodave]

I don’t have any suggestions but I would not use acetone to clean it. It may damage the long term life of the handles and make them more easy to stain in the future.

 

[BruceK]

If they are clean but discolored, maybe paint?

 

[healhustler]

They suffer the same mildew stains as the tubes seem to but more so. Here’s a shot of the oar mount AFTER the rest of the boat came clean. Anywhere there is heavy rubber reinforcement, molding or hardware it’s pretty much the same. I can’t possibly be the only guy with this issue.

Perhaps if I bought my boats new and conditioned them from the beginning it would be different, but used equipment here in FL, pretty standard.

 

[Sabre602]

I would NEVER judge someone for buying used...I'm the king of thrifty acquisition of "gently used" gear! In my experience, those sorts of stains are very difficult to get rid of. Vinegar will kill most mold and mildew spores, but won't remove the staining.

One thing reported to be effective comes from the many folks who don't leave the doors of their front-loading washers open between loads, because they're famous for growing the ugly black stuff on the rubber door seals.

Real bleach...sodium hypochlorite, not the "odorless bleach"...is what you need. Unfortunately, you need a long soak time, and the bleach evaporates before the job is done. You can either cover the area with a rag and keep wetting it with the bleach or you can make a paste with baking soda, though you'll still need to keep adding to it. You may find that it takes an hour or perhaps quite a bit longer.

 

[healhustler]

Great idea about the wetted rag or baking soda. My hands are raw from scrubbing with bleach based mold & mildew killer. It’s been so windy and dry here the last several days that nearly everything evaporates before there’s any effect.

Thanks. I’ll try that tomorrow.