Rescuing a Party Boat from Bad Smells Brings Profit
Carl Dirks works for a 30-year-old nonprofit foundation that introduces inner-city kids to marine studies. The foundation is a national program, sponsoring thousands of kids each year. The foundation sells donated boats to raise money to offer the program to disadvantaged youth at no charge.
The foundation only accepts boats in good condition because it lacks the funds to fix up the boats to sell. Every once in a while, however, a boat in good condition can have an odor problem that no amount of cleaning will fix, and the only way to sell that boat is to reduce the price thousands of dollars. That means reduced funds for the foundation’s important programs.
One such boat was in good condition except for very strong odors. The boat was a 1990 31-foot Wellcraft Excel party boat, and it smelled like one. It reeked of beer, urine, vomit, rotten food, mold, and mildew, along with typical boat odors like head odors and gasoline. It was offensive and repulsive, says Dirks.
A potential customer was coming from Canada to see the boat. The foundation staff had assumed their maintenance crew would be able to get rid of the smells with a thorough cleaning and detailing. Yet after two weeks of such scrubbing, the odor had decreased but was still there. Airing and cleaning were just not doing the job.
Based on success with another boat with odor problems, Dirks decided to try PureAyre.
With one 22-ounce bottle of PureAyre, Dirks fogged every surface, including the walls and furniture. He also hand-sprayed the cushions, upholstery, and the crevices and corners the fogger could not reach. He removed mildew and food – the sources of some of the odors. PureAyre was able to get rid of all the lingering smell. The odors were gone within two hours.
“I was quite amazed,” says Dirks. “I thought I had no chance to clean it up, but I just thought I’d try.” After Dirks had eliminated the odors, an associate walked aboard the boat and asked in amazement, “What did you do, Carl?”
The staff sold the boat the very next day to the Canadian customer. If Dirks hadn’t been able to get rid of the offensive odors, the boat could have sat on the market longer, or the foundation would have had to severely discount the price. With PureAyre, the foundation raised the maximum amount of money for its programs on the sale of the boat.