T&T: "It tastes like Boat"

[Faure, Marin]

>What do people on this list do to address 'Boat Taste' and 'Boat Smell'
in their food and items on the boat?

Haven't had any problems on our GB with "Boat Taste."   Food, even boxes
of crackers that have been open for a few days, taste the same on the
boat as it does on shore.  We drink the water out of our 34-year-old
stainless on-board water tanks, and it tastes pretty much the same as
city water.  We do run it through one of those end-of-faucet filters and
we go through it fairly fast.  So it isn't sitting in the tanks all that
long.  We used to drain the water system for the winter and put in
anti-freeze so the water but we don't do that anymore--- we simply keep
heat on the boat and on the few occasions when there are likely to be
several days of freezing weather we put a small heater in the lazarette
with the water tanks.  So we no longer have the problem of the on-board
water having a slight anti-freeze taste for half the summer.

"Boat smell" isn't an issue either.  We go up to the boat almost every
weekend year round even if we don't take it out.  So it doesn't sit for
long periods of time with little or no fresh air circulation.  When we
first get on it smells like varnish, wood, and "engine" (but not
diesel).  However this is gone, at least perceptively, within a few
minutes.  When we're out and we're gone from the boat on a walk or
whatever for several hours, we don't notice any particular smell when we
come back aboard.

I don't know if this is the norm or if we're just lucky, but Boat Taste
and Boat Smell haven't so far been issues on our boat.

______________________________
C. Marin Faure
GB36-403 "La Perouse"
Bellingham, Washington