How to achieve Ventilation on Boats?
Whether the boats got bought or not often did not connect with their quality but with their smell and odor.
Once upon a time I used to sell boats as a yacht broker . Many of the lower priced boats had been neglected and parked somewhere in the Caribbean for some time. Whether the boats got bought or not often did not connect with their quality but with their smell and odor. Once you had a boat where there had been mold and odor compounded with being “cooked “ for some years without ventilation, the experience of going down below was so deeply unsatisfying that sales at any reasonable price was unlikely. A low quality sanitation hose would accelerate the odor challenge even further until you could hardly get a customer to go further than halfway down the companionway steps.
Strangely it is so easy to avoid this happening. My current boat smells great simply because it has a solar powered vent. Now I admit that these vents do not last for many years, but you can usually get about three years out of them, and the boat is a pleasure to spend time on. It makes a light buzzing noise that is not bothersome. It works only in sunlight but that is sufficient.
The majority are from a US company, and they are not cheap but for the benefit they bring, the price is excellent in my view. After a few years, the motors die and will refuse to start up unless you help them with your finger. The motors are not easily sourced , so repair is difficult.
Well worth the trouble!
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Robbie Ferron has written for ALL AT SEA since 2005.
