Proper washdown routine for wooden boats?

[Colby]

I noticed a lady dropping a bucket into the ocean and washing down her wooden boat. Is a saltwater washdown good for a wooden boat ?

What do the forum experts do to washdown their boats after a cruise ?

FYI -

I have painted FRP decks with tuffcoat non skid.
Hull and topsides are painted with Pettit Easypoxy 3175
Thanks

[nedL]

Traditionally salt water is preferred as the salt has some 'preservative' qualities, and the salt holds moisture so the topsides don't dry out as fast. At Mystic Seaport in CT they have a small work skiff with a large salt water washdown pump aboard that they wet all the larger boats down with regularly.
Of course, if you don't like that salty feeling then use fresh.

[nedL]

Traditionally salt water is preferred as the salt has some 'preservative' qualities, and the salt holds moisture so the topsides don't dry out as fast. At Mystic Seaport in CT they have a small work skiff with a large salt water washdown pump aboard that they wet all the larger boats down with regularly.
Of course, if you don't like that salty feeling then use fresh. Also, salt is abrasive so you might not want it to stay on a high gloss finish.

-Sorry about the double post, - don't know how that happened

[rbgarr]

If freshwater is available (and plentiful, a rare luxury) I prefer using it.

[botebum]

Wood in saltwater- salt
Wood in freshwater-fresh
Glass- fresh

Doug

[JimConlin]

Lather, rinse, repeat.

[Yeadon]

I'd have to think that fresh is better than salt, but salt is better than nothing. Especially if there are piles of bird guano involved that need to be scrubbed off.

I have a small, open boat, and if it's in the salt water for any period of time, I just let it be. You'll never really escape the brine. But once I pull it out and put it on the trailer, then I do my best to scrub it down with fresh water and dry it out.

My gut says this is the right thing to do ... but I'd love to hear the science on the matter.

[Lew Barrett]

The stricture for raw teak decks is salt water, gently swirled with a mop. For everything else, fresh water is a much better choice. For one thing, it dries without leaving salt crystals behind, so a wash actually is a wash rather than a rinse. After cruising for a few weeks out on the briny, the first thing I like to do when I get home is rinse the boat of all the accumulated salt crust using......fresh water.

Depending on the condition and how tight your boat is, you may want to reserve the full wash down treatment for those times it's needed and no more. I used to use Murphy's Oil Soap, but these days just some nice fresh water and a pat dry with a synthetic chamois seems to be my drill. I spot clean stubborn spots.

[Thorne]

Lather, rinse, repeat.


:D:D:D

[Colby]

Thanks for all the helpful replies ... JimConlin excepted :D


...Depending on the condition and how tight your boat is, you may want to reserve the full wash down treatment for those times it's needed and no more...

Is this out of a concern for accumulating fresh water in the bilge?

Am I right to conclude that the downside to salt water washdown is limited to salt residue. This begs the question is that ultimately a good way to make sure rain water gets a little salted before seeping into little nooks and crannies ?

PS = Any chance I saw your pretty boat in Roche Harbour last weekend ?

[Lew Barrett]

Thanks for all the helpful replies ... Thorne excepted :D



Is this out of a concern for accumulating fresh water in the bilge?

Am I right to conclude that the downside to salt water washdown is limited to salt residue. This begs the question is that ultimately a good way to make sure rain water gets a little salted before seeping into little nooks and crannies ?

PS = Any chance I saw your pretty boat in Roche Harbour last weekend ?

Not her, only wish we'd been there as it means we would have been boating!:) Later in August, maybe!

I say what I have not out of concern for water, fresh or salt, in the bilge. I speak only from my own experience, but frankly all the yada yada about salt pickling the wood, or being great for the boat is, to me, anecdotal at best. My boat spent all her years in a boat house in salt water before I got her. She took 20 or more planks from the outset, and a new bottom in the end. Was the wood pickled to indestructibility as a result of her 55 years in salt water? I didn't think so.

The reason I believe it's so critical to keep fresh water from running down the inside of one's hull during rain isn't necessarily because it's fresh water. To paraphrase Emeril, it's because where I come from, it doesn't rain salt water. If we can't agree on that, we probably can agree that each type, fresh or salt, carries it's own issues. Salt water is a better conductor and more corrosive, so it works the fasteners and metal bits much harder. Fresh water is kinder that way but has a greater propensity to support certain types of molds and rot. Either way, water is a hostile environment except that it keeps our boats swollen tight if they are in good condition otherwise.

So I suggest not to be tempted to do too much washing with either medium not because one is "better" for the boat than another, but simply because any leaking from on high down into the boat which remains as dampness wlll support rot under certain circumstances to be elaborated on by Bob Smalser!

If a boat is nice and tight, washing with fresh water is a pleasure for those who enjoy keeping their stuff spotless, and equally, it is fruitless to wash down with salt water if our objective is to make her pretty and grit free. I've always been told teak decks enjoy a rinse in salt water, and as I've never had those, I accept that as a piece of believable lore, told me by my elders and betters.

[Jay Greer]

I always wash down with salt water first. This can be combined with a boat friendly detergent, followed by a sponging off and chamois wipe with fresh.
Remember that salt water does not support dry rot spores.
Jay

[Lew Barrett]

In Washington, I believe it is technically illegal to allow the run off from washing a boat with soap to enter the water. Not that this is enforced, but I believe I read that "somewhere." Anybody have any insights on that?

[Rick Tyler]

Lew, don't your wife and daughters really do all the work?

[Lew Barrett]

Hah! I wish!

[Jay Greer]

In Washington, I believe it is technically illegal to allow the run off from washing a boat with soap to enter the water. Not that this is enforced, but I believe I read that "somewhere." Anybody have any insights on that?
In California it is, technicaly, illegal to wash seagull droppings and jet fuel fall out off of your boat!
Jay
Never send an idiot on a fool's errand!

[Piet Piraat]

After they built the long dike (in the 1930's) enclosing what used to be the South Sea in Holland turning it into a freshwater lake some of the fishing boats in Marken (an island in the middle) rotted away very quickly. From what I understand of it it depends onthe construction and on how often your boat goes from fresh to salt. If its regularly in both no problem and if the timbers aren't like some of the old Dutch fishing boats at least 12 inch wide again no problem. As to dirt or salty marks I can't comment.

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

LF Herreshoff (in "The Compleat Cruiser) recommends washing a wooden boat down, inside and out, with fresh water before laying her up each autumn, in order to remove any traces of salt and salt crystals.

I have followed this advice for many years and it is good.

My son's Firefly (a 12ft hot moulded wooden racing dinghy like a small Thistle) gets hosed down inside and out after every sail (on a salt water estuary) but the cover does not go on until she is dry.

Washing the decks down is done with canvas buckets of salt water.

[Raka025]

Using a chamois on the brightwork or topside with the morning dew gets rid of the salt crystals which can magnify the sun and speed up UV damage. Useful if you live on a mooring. I would agree with the salt water on a teak deck being better. Not that I ever had a full teak deck - not yet anyways...

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

Yes, good old fashioned advice.