Tropical Boat Storage – 4 Weapons Against Mould and Pests

Leaving your boat locked up in the tropics?

I’m not an expert on boat storage. However, having left our boat on anchor several times in the tropics – once with grim consequences – I feel I can impart a small bit of wisdom.  

We left Thorfinn, our beloved home, in Langkawi up a river at a place called Hole in the Wall, for six weeks while we backpacked through Cambodia and Vietnam. When we arrived back, we were confronted with a boat brimming with mould. We also had tiny spiders onboard which must have floated across on the breeze from the mangroves; and a few cockroaches that obviously snuck aboard before we left. We cleaned up the mould the best we could and took the boat around to Telaga Marina to get everything washed.

Every towel, sheet and most of our clothes had to be washed. I washed the interior walls with vinegar to remove the mould and sprayed the boat with some surface spray* to get rid of the spiders. Frustratingly, the little spiders took a long time to exterminate. At Telaga we also had ants on the deck but manage to kill them, with surface spray, before they got below deck and cause havoc.

Not long after our woeful return, we took Thorfinn up onto the hard in Satun, Thailand. We spent the next seven weeks painting her hull, varnishing the interior and doing the anti-foul. Once this was done, we had to leave her in a marina for seven weeks. This time I was not taking any chances.

Thorfinn’s new upholstery.

I studied up all the information I could find. I asked fellow sailors and even put the question out there on Facebook. How do you prevent mould? Clove oil was the definite winner of the battle against mould. Mothballs and moisture absorbers** also got a mention.

So when preparing to leave Thorfinn this time, I began preparations at Satun before we put everything back onto the boat.

I had been trying to obtain some clove oil*** for months now with no luck. Fortunately, I met Jacqui from SV TinTin. Jacqui had several bottles of clove oil and was happy to part with some… THANK YOU JACQUI! Jacqui had just returned to her boat after leaving it in Phuket for 18 months to discover no mould at all… yes, she had used the clove oil.

So before I put anything back onto Thorfinn, I sprayed the item all over with a mixture of clove oil diluted^ with water and hung it all in the sun to dry. I did this with our towels, sheets, clothes, shoes, pillows, cushions and also our new re-upholstered interior cushions.

The day before we left I sprayed the walls and ceilings inside Thorfinn and inside the bathroom, lockers etc. I put some moisture absorbers in with the clothes and manchester. The day I was leaving, we covered the vents with fly mesh, and I put mothballs**** in each locker and some in the bilge, one behind the oven etc.

Just before we close up the boat, I sprayed surface spray along the edges of the floor and around all of the hatches and vents. I also sprayed the circumference of each mooring line at the top where it was attached to Thorfinn to deter ants, cockroaches etc.

Ok… I can hear you thinking OVERKILL! I agree, but I really didn’t want to come back to a mess of mould and pests. Just remember, our beloved Thorfinn was looking as good as new, and it would have destroyed us to go back and find her in a mess. We had only had her back in the water for a few days, and we loathed to leave her.

Thorfinn freshly painted and ready to leave in Langkawi.

So how did my “overkill” work? We arrived back to Thorfinn after seven weeks and found her mould and pest free, albeit she smelt like mothballs. The smell didn’t take too long to disappear once she was opened up again and sailing in the ocean air!

I do take note that the first time we left Thorfinn was in the middle of the wet season and the second time mentioned was in the dry season. I’m sure this had a lot to do with us finding Thorfinn in pristine condition. However, we have since left Thorfinn for three months at a time and again over the wet season several times. Now for the last few years, I have always use clove oil and believe it has certainly helped. Even after three months in the wet season, we only come back to a small amount of mould and have never ever had to face a mess such as we had in 2015!

My verdict – give clove oil, surface spray, mothballs and moisture absorbers a go!

Like this post? Please share of pin using the image below… thank you!