Your boating friends here at P & G Web Consulting have collected various and sundry Environmentally Friendly ways to help keep your boat clean and fresh. There are some money saving make-it-yourself tips, too.
We hope you find this information useful. If you wish to suggest additions, improvements, corrections, etc, please click and e-mail to georgevaldes@pgwebconsulting.com.
Happy and safe boating!
| Bleach: | Borax or hydrogen peroxide |
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| Scouring powders: | Baking soda and elbow grease |
| Fiberglass stain remover: | Baking soda paste, scrub pads and elbow grease |
| Window cleaner: | Vinegar and lemon juice mixed in lukewarm water |
| Chrome cleaner: | Apple cider vinegar to clean; baby oil to polish |
| Copper cleaner: | Lemon or lime juice and salt |
| Lockertop cleaner: | White vinegar and water |
| Shower cleaner: | Baking soda, scouring cloth, warm water and elbow grease; final wipe with lemon or time juice |
| Drain opener: | Boiling water and plunger or plumber's snake (toxic substances should not be used in through-hull drains) |
| Wood polish: | Olive oil or almond oil for interior wood |
| Air freshening spray: | mix well 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 tablespoon vinegar with 2 cups of water. Pour mixture in a spray bottle and spray as needed. |
The following is taken from Chesapeake Bay Magazine, June 2003, "Good Boatkeeping - Home Brews", by Jerry Renninger.
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Have you noticed what supermarkets charge for a spray bottle of Universal Grunge Eradicator? When you've emptied your current one, save and refill it with the following. One batch makes about two liters, so have on hand an empty soft-drink bottle to store the overage. A basic pouring funnel will also come in handy.
Gently stir all of the materials in a large mixing bowl (one that you'll never again use for cooking). After funneling the stuff into the spray bottle, put the remainder in the soft-drink container as a refill. One quart costs about 50 cents, yet it cleans like 40 little demons all working simultaneously in your galley or head. Just spray it on, wait a minute or so, rub with a sponge (yes, even home brew requires some elbow grease), then rinse. This concoction contains nothing to poison you (unless you drink it on the rocks) or damage your plumbing.
What you use for these two tasks - they're not identical - depends on which one you want to accomplish. To merely shampoo interior carpeting, pour half a cup of dishwashing liquid into your mixing bowl, add two cups of boiling water and allow the mixture to cool and congeal to the consistency of thick jelly. Then use an egg beater, manual or electric, to turn the mixture into a foam. Next, use a clean sponge to wipe (not scour) the foam over a small portion of the carpet. On hightraffic areas it's okay to rub gently. Rinse away the foam with a damp sponge (clean water) until the foam is gone, but be careful not to soak the carpet. When it's thoroughly dry, vacuum to remove any residue.
For stain and spot removal you need a different brew. If the stain is still wet, blot up as much as possible (remember, no rubbing because that will only embed it in the carpet fibers). Then, in your trusty mixing bowl, mix one teaspoon of dishwashing liquid and one of white vinegar in two cups of warm water. Sponge it into the stain, and rinse it with a sponge that's been well wrung out in cold water. Repeat the process until the stain disappears, keeping in mind that, as any dry cleaner will tell you, some stains simply are indelible. So don't become frustrated and resort to commercial cleaning liquids. Most of these contain naphtha (lighter fluid) and are therefore flammable.
Pet-urine stains are an entirely different matter. First, use the basic carpet shampoo (no vinegar) formula and process as described above, then mix two cups of cornmeal with one cup of borax (available in the laundry-detergent aisle) and sprinkle it all over and beyond the perimeter of the stain. After one hour the powder mix will have absorbed the moisture, so now you can vacuum it up. It's very important to store any leftover mixture in an airtight container and keep it away from children, because borax can be toxic if ingested.
Sometimes these can be an eight-legged nightmare to deal with, and while many commercially available cleaners do a decent job, few if any work better or cost less than the following.
In a small cup, mix cream of tartar (a powder you'll find in the baking section of the supermarket) with hydrogen peroxide till it takes on the consistency of a paste. Scrub it into the stain with a toothbrush and then rinse with fresh water. If the stain remains, repeat the process, but this time let the paste dry for an hour or so, then scrub it off with a suitable brush. (Incidentally, this mixture works wonderfully on plumbing fixtures in the galley and the head.)
If your topside wood looks as if it hasn't been dealt with since the days of John Paul Jones, here's a combination cleaner and rejuvenator. Do not use this on polyurethane finishes.
Depending on the amount you expect to need, mix equal amounts of turpentine, boiled linseed oil and white vinegar (and for heaven's sake don't smoke or turn on the oven while using this; it's quite flammable). While wearing rubber gloves, dip a piece of No. 0000 steel wool in the liquid and scrub the wood lightly. Then wipe it down with a lint-free cloth and allow it to dry.
For cabin woodwork a gentler potion will do. Mix a teaspoon of white vinegar and another of olive oil in a quart of warm water, and with a clean cloth wipe down the wood, without slathering on the liquid. Then wipe it dry.
Homemade metal polish is a bit trickier than the brews described so far, but if you have lots of topside metal to polish, over time this will save you a good deal of money.
In a sealable one-pint container mix:
In the end, the real trick to keeping your boat in a state that will cause your marina neighbors to both despise and envy you is simple: Keep up with the work. Agreed, occasionally they may cackle in your direction as they blast out to the Bay while you spend an hour or so every other week cleaning and polishing. Yet you'll have the last laugh when they're obliged to call in professionals armed with industrial-strength chemicals and chisels to clean up their own floating disasters. Moreover, it's cheaper to wipe down a fixture today with something inexpensive than to replace it tomorrow.