Ok guys, here's what I'm looking for, and it's not car/truck related. With all the rain (and hurricanes! ), I seem to be having a never ending battle with mildew growth on the vinyl interior in my ski boat. After I apply a whole lot of elbow grease and time to get the vinyl back in good shape, it only seems to take a week or so for the mildew to return. Is there a product on the market, that when applied to vinyl, will inhibit the growth of mold/mildew? I've tried using two good sized tubs of Damp-Rid inside the boat before covering it with my canvas mooring cover to lower the moisture content, but the Damp-Rid is gone in a week after which I'm back in the mildew cultivagtion business again.

Oh, I almost forgot, the boat is stored in an enclosed corrugated metal building, so it's not directly exposed to the rain (or sun).

Anybody got any ideas? I'm all out........

 

Ok, I went looking and found this product as a 'possible' solution http://www.303products.com/main.php?...ge=fabricguard. Although I've used (and really like) 303 Protectant, I've never seen this product before. Anybody used it?

 

Well I just typed this whole big reply to you and then hit the wrong key and blew it away so here goes again.

The first thing you have to make sure of, is that the boat is completely dry when you cover it and put it away. You have to understand that the environment that a boat is in is very mildew friendly. Which sucks for us.

Heres my suggestion. Wash the boat top to bottom inside and out real good. Pull any cushions off that come off and lay them out to dry, you may even have to flip them over a few times to really dry them out. See if theres any water laying in the boat anywhere, like the bilge, ski locker in the floor, or anywhere else. That water needs to get out of there. Just use a small shop vac and suck it out. I would also throw the mooring cover in the wash.Let the boat sit out a day or 2 in the sun to make sure it dries real good. If your cushions are soaked thru it may take a while to dry.Then and only then should you cover it and store it in that building. Putting it in the building, with the cover on it on those hot and humid days,,man thats like a greenhouse underneath that cover. The condensation is just dripping off the cover adding to the mildew. 3M makes a product in a spray bottle that is supposed to help prevent mildew. May be something you might want to try. Also if you cant let the boat dry before putting it in storage, I would leave the cover off. I would rather come back in a week or 2 and rinse off the dust rather than scrub off all the mildew again. Unfortunately theres no mirical cure for mildew its just something that you have to deal with and keep up on. Once it goes too long it gets pretty nasty. Ive been in the boating business for over 10 years and get this question all the time. Good luck and let us know how you make out.

One more thing, did I tell you to make sure it s dry before you put it away

 

303 makes some great products. The problem is, theres so many different ones out there , which do you use. I would say 303, 3M, and Mary Kate products are good. Heres a link to the 3M stuff I was telling you about

http://www.westmarine.com/images/full/5399944.jpg