My battle continues.  Those in the know remember my boat came from the brother of a guy who drowned in the Potomac.   He was holding on to it for sentimental reasons and it had sat outside under a bad cover for over 2 years.  It was chock full of mold.  I have tried most everything known to man to get rid of it and the best I can do is keep it under control.  For the most part it has left the interior alone.  It is in the bilge and the worst is in a couple of the rear compartments.  I'm on a cleaning binge this week and the boat is on the list.  Here's a couple pics of the cover before and after cleaning.  The mold was pretty bad.  I vacuumed and cleaned all of the compartments and will get after the wax tomorrow.   Today was the cover.

I have had success with a product called Totally Awesome.  I get it at Dollar General and Wal Mart.  I use it for all kinds of deep cleaning in the home, camper and boat.

The best way to combat mold in a boat is to never cover it when wet & always keep the compartment lids open. You want to promote air movement even using a fan when not in use. I would skip the cover all together if it is stored in a garage.    

Vinegar and water. Works. 

 

Folex for the deck.

Mold is a beast….. where do do keep it, garage, carport…..driveway?

I was kind of thinking what Dwight said, the cover may be contributing to the problem. I haven’t cleaned up mold in a while, had some in a basement on block wall I scrubbed with bleach and we used to use simple green and a brush on boat seats when I was a kid. 
 

it’s been hot and dry here lately, if that continues in your area that will obviously help. 
 

how long have you been battling it?? I know it rains a ton up the east coast 

Toss the cover not worth savaging. 

Contact a commercial mold removal service that can power spray everything inside the boat under the hatches and all compartments and carpets. Well worth a few hundred dollars. Done.

The hull you can clean.

Tom

The boat is stored outside year round so the cover is a necessity.  The cover is not the problem, it has plenty of ventilation.  The pics of the cover are before and after I cleaned it yesterday, the before is the dirty one, clean is after.  I don’t have a problem cleaning the carpet, seats or any exterior parts of the boat and there is not a problem there, the mold does not coat those areas unless I fall off in my cleaning.  Storing with the lids open is no help because the mold is in the space between the top cap and hull.  I use a fan in the summer.  I have also used every commercial mold remover and home remedy to try and eliminate it but short of pulling the top cap, I don’t think there’s any way to eliminate it.  I have filled the bilge with a mixture of cleaner and drove it around behind my truck sloshing it as much as possible and after a few days the black molasses like liquid that came out of there was disgusting ?  I’ve also had the seats out multiple times and done a thorough cleaning on everything I could reach.  I guess I’m just venting because I am so picky about my vehicles and boat.  Unless you knew, you wouldn’t know the problem even existed by looking at the boat.  

Park it out west in the desert for a few months. Or in the belly of a barn, that’s the driest place you can find in the eastern US. You can dig 20 feet down with a spoon 

Like I said, if you didn’t know about the mold problem, you can’t tell it from the boat.  Went ahead and spot treated some of the carpet, gave her a coat of Griots 3n1 ceramic, scrubbed the seats and recoated them with 303 Protectant and she’s looking like a new penny.  Not bad for a 2005 model that has spent its entire life outside.  

looks real nice!

1 hour ago, TOXIC said:

Like I said, if you didn’t know about the mold problem, you can’t tell it from the boat.  Went ahead and spot treated some of the carpet, gave her a coat of Griots 3n1 ceramic, scrubbed the seats and recoated them with 303 Protectant and she’s looking like a new penny.  Not bad for a 2005 model that has spent its entire life outside.  

Looking good! Do you need me to loan you a brick to chock that wheel? Haha. You got $300 worth of lumber just to keep her from rolling…….. 

 

just messing with ya, for a 2005 that’s in excellent shape . 

Nice looking rig. For 17 yrs old Great looking rig.???

 

Looking beyond good ?

Looks great?

The issue is black mold inside the floatation foam under the top cap. If enough water is in the foam it increases the hull weight and the mold keeps growing. I realize you already know this, what a PITA.

Tom

I agree, to the naked eye it looks pretty good. Darn good for a 2005 boat stored outside.

 

I think I’d ditch the current cover and try a new one.

 

My boat is stored in the garage without a cover. No carpet either. I fish a lot in the rain because I target days like that. When I get home, I lift all the lids and storage bin covers and turn in the ceiling fan in the garage. Moisture is completely gone by morning.

One of the best cleaners I've used and have been using since the early 70's is Spray Nine.  It's sold in Home Depot and other places now.  The one thing you have to be careful about is the UV protection on marine vinyl is a thin coating on the outer surface and a lot of cleaners will strip that coating off and only cleaners made for marine vinyl should be used.  Never really found one of those that I liked.  Whether or not Spray Nine strips that coating off or not, I don't know, it probably does but I never really cared.  It did a great job at cleaning and never noticed any reduced life.  I've also never bought new or new looking boats and usually ended up recovering the seats anyway.  

17 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

Looking good! Do you need me to loan you a brick to chock that wheel? Haha. You got $300 worth of lumber just to keep her from rolling…….. 

 

just messing with ya, for a 2005 that’s in excellent shape . 

Haha.  My wife did that because she got tired of my “spare” chocks being stacked against the house.  I use them on both rear tires and I need one for the tongue Jack because the wheel will sink into my asphalt driveway in the heat.
I almost forgot what I hate even more than the mold….STINKBUGS! When we have a bad year for them they get everywhere on the boat.  I cover the motor and they get both in between the cover and the motor and where the cowling meets the frame of the motor.  They get under every locker lid in the drip edge and along the entire length of the cover where it meets the top cap.  We are talking hundreds of them.  While they don’t do any damage, they are true to their name and really stink when disturbed. 

15 minutes ago, TOXIC said:

Haha.  My wife did that because she got tired of my “spare” chocks being stacked against the house.  I use them on both rear tires and I need one for the tongue Jack because the wheel will sink into my asphalt driveway in the heat.
I almost forgot what I hate even more than the mold….STINKBUGS! When we have a bad year for them they get everywhere on the boat.  I cover the motor and they get both in between the cover and the motor and where the cowling meets the frame of the motor.  They get under every locker lid in the drip edge and along the entire length of the cover where it meets the top cap.  We are talking hundreds of them.  While they don’t do any damage, they are true to their name and really stink when disturbed. 

Those things are ridiculous. I had like 300 of them spend the winter inbetween two metal layers of my grill lid