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That 70's Hatteras smell...

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That smell has to be a combination of the old wood, the old oil/sludge in the bilges that we can’t get at to clean and I think the most likely offender, the crankcase fumes that are vented while running.

I’ve never managed to get rid of mine, just reduced it considerably by cleaning as much as the bilges as I can. Replacing the fabrics will help for a time.

That smell follows me home in my boat bag. I get a ‘blast’ when I open it up to unpack.

An older boat at my marina has the same smell, although much more ‘in your face’ walking by it. It’s not a Hatt.
 
On top of making sure your bilges are as dry as possible change out the black tank hoses. Over time they degrade and loose their ablility to contain odors properly. Worked well for my dock mate that fought odor for over a year, then, replaced all of his sanitary hose and bingo, no more odor.
 
I've had my 1973 53 MY for about 6 months and the lousy smells are gone. The bilge is still not great but I have used a Soy Powder I bought from West Marine and used it to soak up oil that's in bilge water. It can also be bought as a "sock" and left by the bilge pump so that when the boat bilges, there is no oil residue as this stuff "eats" oil and fuel that's in the bilge water or on the oily spots. Also, the PO got rid of all the old carpets/vinyl and installed a very heavy wood-grained vinyl that I thought was actually wood, at first. I cleaned the floors with a degreaser and then use area rugs now and the "wood" floors are an accent on the lower level. Lastly, i used Interlux 1026 wood sealer on the wood. It leaves a beautiful semigloss finish and really brings out the depth of the grain and seals in any of the old smells. It's alot easier to apply than varnish as it is very thin and dries to touch in a couple of hours. i've used it in all my boats with great results and it's easy to touch up. I use foam brushes and get alot of positive comments on the wood now. Of course, it's a matter of taste, I like the look of varnished wood. Also, I live on my boat in Northern California, so I run the cruisair heater most mornings and leave a couple ports open during the day. Hope these ideas help. I looked at alot of stinky boats before I bought this old girl, she smelled better than most and that diesel smell is a bummer. that could just be coming from a leaky hose fitting at the tanks. the soy powder may take care of it, I'm thinking it's making the difference on my boat. I'ts not cheap, about $16 per cannister/sock.
 
I dont get it... Even after a submersion, the sub dont stink.Anytime someone new comes aboard I ask them. Once in a while the head stinks, usually around 7 a.m. LOL but thats it. I have plenty of oil soaked wood and actually several inaccessable bilge compartments that hold 5 year old swamp water. I suggest getting a few cartons of sparkies (!!) and lighting up.
I do leave several portlites open when we leave for home, but we re on the Rio Chongo with Mt Trashmore right across from us.
Houses with babies in diapers smell worser to me, but then I dont like midgets either! ws
 
yachtsmanbill said:
I dont get it... Even after a submersion, the sub dont stink.Anytime someone new comes aboard I ask them. Once in a while the head stinks, usually around 7 a.m. LOL but thats it. I have plenty of oil soaked wood and actually several inaccessable bilge compartments that hold 5 year old swamp water. I suggest getting a few cartons of sparkies (!!) and lighting up.
I do leave several portlites open when we leave for home, but we re on the Rio Chongo with Mt Trashmore right across from us.
Houses with babies in diapers smell worser to me, but then I dont like midgets either! ws
Click to expand...

Well I see your Regular :D

But you have used enough acid and other stuff to cleanup after the Exxon Valdez :)
 
I see yer point Dan... When I bought the sub, everything was soaked and sitting closed up tight in NOLA for 6 months. Talk about stink!! I pulled all the soft stuff out then sprayed a good 20 gallons of bleach throughout, and then pressure washer the entire inside. That included pulling every drawer out and soaking all 10 sides. All the junk went into the bilge and I am still washing and vacuuming that stuff up.
As bad as that acid smelled, once it was neutralized, you could actually smell teak underneath it! 10 gallons of varnish and some new wood and rugs works as well as Fabreeze, at least from a yachtsman's point of view.
Unless the smell is fowl like as in spoiled garbage in the galley, the smell of a boat is kinda comforting. I miss the smell of a wood boat that has leaky windows too!!
I wonder what some folks think of sitting in a jet plane at the airport. I dont think that stinks too bad either, but then again, I was born into the lot of being a grease monkey!! ws
 
I never considered 'that smell' to stink. Others however might consider my clothes to stink after I've been on the boat.
 
I haven't tried this, but apparently there is a new product on the market made from Tea Tree Oil called Kanberra Gel. I just read about it yesterday in a newsletter my marina puts out (Brewers) and they give it a thumbs up (see the last page of http://www.byy.com/tidewatch/fall2010.html). You can check the product out directly at http://www.kanberragel.com/new_pages/kgel_markets.php. Looks pretty reasonable (and eco-friendly) - I read elsewhere thata 2 oz. container cost $15 and last 2 months. Not sure how much area that covers.

So - anybody ever try Kanberra Gel?
 
I did... no impressed. didnt' really make a diffence.

I''ve had good luck with Fabreeze True air.. it's a plug in with a special filter, pretty large (about 3 x 4") but seems to work pretty well
 
We thought we'd try the new Kanberra Gel stuff so I bought $100 online and will employ it on my next trrip over to the boat. I will advise this group towards late winter on the new gel works. I'm just trying to prevent any storage mildew. Historically large open bowls of charcoal briquets seemed to work well.
 
The only time I get a smell is if the shower pump clogs ans overflows into the bilge. I think that if you guys with the oiled interiors would wipe them down with #2 oil once a week all other smells will dissapear.
 
I had a sailboat once with a diesel and it would really stink especially if closed up for long periods of time. I bought an ozinator (usually used by folks growing lots of plants inside and they want to remove the smell) and turned it on for a week with the boat closed up. When I opened things up it smelled fresh and wonderful. Just don't breathe the stuff. After winter storage I ran the ozinator each year .. it actually kills all the bacteria / mould / and other bad things that cause odors. Even got rid of the diesel smell from my interior cushions. I haven't tried it on my Hatt yet, because I think it smells pretty good as it is. A lot of guys I know with sailboats (which tend to be wetter inside than Hatts) swear by their ozinators and wouldn't be without them, unless they want to keep the ladies from coming aboard.
 
Doesn't the ozone accelerate break down of anything synthetic like plastics and vinyl? Maybe that is a myth.
 
Not sure if it affects plastics or synthetics .. never heard about this in the sailing community. I suspect the limited exposure (1 week) of the stuff in the boat doesn't give it enough time to do anything nasty, if that's what it is inclined to do. Then the boat is aired out, smells great, and all is good to go. It also kills anything nasty in the bilges as well. By the way, the boat smells like fresh spring air following a nearby lightening strike, which generates a ton of the stuff.
 
A friend's boat was hit by lightning - it didn't smell fresh as a spring day at all... :)
 
A guy with a scuba shop here uses it to protect all the neoprene stuff in the store. I thought it deteriorated the stuff as well. Hmm... Lightning strikes? It make my teeth feel like I am chewing on a ball of tin foil. I hate the stuff!
Be a good boat owner and climb in with a hose, a brush, some dawn, and a shop vac.

"Engineering; Turn to and air bedding on deck..."
Henry Fonda in Mister Roberts 1966
 
Gentlemen, ozone is a strong oxidant, i.e. in layman's terms it destroys stuff. Use it sparingly or your rubber items (belts, hoses etc) might start to look like like old rubber bands. The process is called 'ozonation'.

your resident chemist
Bob Kassal
 
Ozone eats rubber but not too bad on synthetics. We use it for deodorizing fire scenes. (and other particularly nasty odors such as biohaz remediation)
 
Gentalmen I own 2001-50' SF It also has this foul smell sometimes so bad you can not stay on boat.Hatteras has had at least 6 boat yards try to solve this problem. Including ozone generator. Ozone generator will eat rubber hoses and is not good for your health. Last comment made by present service manger is that there is water trapped between hull and bottom of bilge [ In keel and has saturated foam ] hATTERAS HAS DRILLED HOLES IN KEEL TWICE the last time was feb of 2008 and as of december of 2009 the water is still dripping out and it does stink. Service manger says almost impossible to get rid of smell.
 
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