Cleaning the bow storage compartments on a 4788-gctid821341

[Guest]

Two of my three bow storage areas were disgusting. The port side storage area next to the seating spot in the bow was plugged so that no water could drain. There was mold growing in there, and thanks to the previous owner lots of pieces of paper floating around. I got in there with a sponge and mopped it out as best I could. Then I went to work with a great dollar store find.




This stuff worked wonders. Repeated hits of this, followed by scrubbing with a scotch bright scrubbing pad, and everything got clean. Then I took an old guitar string and cleaned out the drain hole. It took multiple swipes in and out before everything was cleared and the drain now runs cleanly.




I am too embarrassed to show you the before picture. Then I went to work in the anchor wash down storage area. It too was clogged and no water would drain. After mopping it out it took a dozen Q-tips to clean the gunk out of the drain hole. Then I accessed it from the anchor locker in the master state room. I removed the drain hose and then cleared it out with the guitar string. Now the water drains perfectly.




I'm very pleased with the way everything turned out.

[Guest]

Glad you were able to get it all cleaned out. It also encouraged me to check my storage areas.

[green650]

I've been doing similar projects on my boat. My stainless wet/dry vac from Costco died so I bought one from Home Depot for around $20. Its the one that clips onto the orange 5 gallon homer buckets. So far it's been working great sucking nasty water out of nasty places. Much faster than us using hand bilge pumps. Some of my forward vbirth compartments didn't have drains so this was the only way to go.

[Woodsea]

A couple of months ago I washed out the P side storage on our boat. Whoa, big leak into master stateroom P closet. The floor in the storage area was not fiberglassed well and had delaminated. I cleaned it well, sanded it, epoxied two layers of fiberglass and painted. I also made sure the little plastic drain hose Was well sealed and intact. What seemed like it should of taken 3-4 hours took the better part of two days. Clean and smooth now!