My bilges stink!

[SimonA]

Try some cheap supermarket washing powder mixed with hot water.

[l'escargot]

Is that the trade name?

Probably more widely known as "Simple Solution", I have also used it with success - also removes red wine stains from fabric.

I have also used Daz in near boiling water in bilges with some success too.

[Galago]

Stockholm tar ... make her smell like a proper boat!

[SteveTibbetts]

A hopefully minor drift - what to do if there's only minimal access to the bilge? Mine have only a couple of small holes to the side lockers, one to the engine bilge and about half inch around a compression/table support post. I know there's a gunky oily mess down there about an inch deep I reckon but can't actually get to it. What to do? Make an access hole in the saloon floor?

[affinite]

As has already been said, do make sure that you check for the source. Bilges on my new boat were also "stinking". I found that a concealed anti-siphon loop vent had failed and was spraying *rappy water up behind the heads and down into the bilge
Have now sorted the leak and now off to swindlery for some bilgex.

[Spyro]

I think bleach is the first stop (as well as the cheapest). A good swill round will kill the bacteria (often the cause of the smell) and makes the bilges look a whole lot better.

If the smell persists- try one of the expensive cures.

I've also used bleach to good effect.

[Billjratt]

Stop papering over the cracks!
Where's the "stink" coming from?
Find and fix....... You don't say what the boat is, but unless it's been designed in, (the smell I mean) in which case the users association will have some workaround to circumvent, you have a FAULT...
- water (maybe contaminated by 'heads liquids' or from the galley) is getting to somewhere it can fester and develop. You have to prevent it from getting there, rather then mixing something probably equally toxic, but less odorous in with it and then having to pump out.
If it's "Condensation"as a lot of new boat owners seem to prefer.. you need more airflow - again a design problem.