Inside of Boat Pounded with Rain...Now What?

[wake454]

Hey Guys,

So, weather.com totally screwed me yesterday. The 20% chance of rain turned into a full on thunder storm for like 2 hrs. I got stuck out at the lake and got pounded with rain. I had like an inch of water standing in the boat. I got a shop vac and sucked out all the water but of course the carpet was still pretty damp. Today the carpet smells really bad. The front section of carpet pulls out but the rest of the carpet does not. What can I do to get the mildew smell out of the carpet?

[mtnsmith]

I wash my carpet frequently as I use the boat in salt water. I am not sure if your boat is new but the new carpet smells really bad when it is soaked, this has been discussed before and will go away eventually. As far as getting it dry I just leave my boat uncovered with all hatches/seats open in the sun after vacuuming with a shopvac, or if it is raining or leaves are falling and I need to cover it to keep it clean, I have a small box fan that I plug in to keep air circulating and make sure to prop the bow seats open a few inches and still have the seats up in the back to allow max evaporating. I put the fan up in the driver's footwell area aiming back at the left rear, seems to work pretty well. A note on the fan to use, I used one with little metal feet once and it left rust circles in the carpet that I had to scrub out, so make sure no metal touches the wet carpet. If there is a mildew or really stale smell I have used a product called odoban that I spray on the carpet to freshen things up. Some people have talked about using febreeze also.

[da.bell]

Are you using fans to dry it out also? You will need to keep it uncovered for awhile or until it dries out.

[samw]

Hey Guys,

So, weather.com totally screwed me yesterday. The 20% chance of rain turned into a full on thunder storm for like 2 hrs. I got stuck out at the lake and got pounded with rain. I had like an inch of water standing in the boat. I got a shop vac and sucked out all the water but of course the carpet was still pretty damp. Today the carpet smells really bad. The front section of carpet pulls out but the rest of the carpet does not. What can I do to get the mildew smell out of the carpet?

I have an 01 2100 v and my carpet is not removable and this happend to but it was parked in the drive way. What I did was sucked it all out with a shop vac then took my carpet cleaner in the boat an shampooed the carpet all was good. then I took a fans and dryed it out .
Just an idea, worked for me.

[scoot18]

Hey Guys, So, weather.com totally screwed me yesterday. The 20% chance of rain turned into a full on thunder storm for like 2 hrs.

You weren't screwed by weather.com, you just unfortunately happened to be in the area that got the 20%

Has happened to me many times, matter of fact the last time it happened it was raining so hard and the wind was so strong the white caps were coming over the bow, lightning out the wazoo, needless to say I was borderline craping my pants. I was racing back to the dock and didn't make it, got stuck out on the lake, could'nt see where to go, all I could do for a while was go in circles and hope I got a break so I could see how to get at least to the shore. The whole storm felt like it lasted 15 minutes, after checking my watch I realized it had been almost an hour, the storm rocked us for 50 minutes.

"I can relate buddy," all you can do is shop vac the carpets, get the nose of the boat up real high, remove the drain plug so it can drain, add a few fans as already suggested and pray for sunshine.

"Good luck"

[yellow3]

been there done that. but its not a biggie. fans are the best bet imo. and open ALL compartments possible. the little 10 dollar fans at walmart fit nicely into small spaces and circulate plenty of air to dry it out in a day or less...given good weather and low humidity.

[talltigeguy]

I am not sure if your boat is new but the new carpet smells really bad when it is soaked, this has been discussed before and will go away eventually.

Or it might come back every time the boat gets really wet.

[dogbert]

Not a big deal. As someone already suggested, carpet cleaner and a wet vac.

Once a year, I take my boat to the local car detail shop and they steam clean my carpets. This really helps get all the ground in dirt out.

[wake454]

Thanks for the posts guys. I got some fans yesterday and have them runnin on it.