The yacht goes into the yard on Monday. On Tuesday a contractor walks through the main saloon in work boots carrying a dripping hydraulic hose, and a provisioning pallet is dragged across the wool carpet in the crew passage. Neither of them meant any harm. Both of those events were the interior department's job to prevent, on Sunday.
Protecting soft furnishings during works and provisioning
- Everything soft comes out or gets covered before a yard period: loose cushions and rugs into labelled, dry storage; fixed upholstery, headboards and wall panels under proper protective covers, not bin bags taped to silk.
- Lay hard floor protection on carpeted routes and a defined contractor walking route with a shoe policy at the boundary.
- Protect during provisioning too — trolleys, crates and wet boxes cause as much damage as contractors.
- Do a walkthrough with photographs before and after. If a contractor marks a fabric, the photographs are what settle it.
- Ventilate and dehumidify a yard-period interior: a closed-up boat with damp works and no HVAC grows mould in soft furnishings quickly.
Inventory and spares
- Maintain a soft-furnishings inventory: item, location, fabric schedule reference, supplier, condition, photographs.
- Hold and log spares and offcuts — labelled, dry, out of the light.
- Record every clean, every product used and every treatment against the item. It builds the history the specialist and the surveyor will want.
Chemical safety and COSHH
The products you use to protect the fabric can harm you and the yacht.
- Every product needs its safety data sheet (SDS) available, with a COSHH-style assessment: what it is, the hazards, the PPE, first aid, spill response.
- Wear the stated PPE — gloves at minimum; eye protection and respiratory protection where the SDS calls for it.
- Solvents in an enclosed space are the serious risk on a yacht. Cabins, wardrobes and lockers do not ventilate. Open up, run mechanical ventilation, work in short periods, never work alone in a confined space with solvent, and be aware of flammability and the sources of ignition around you.
- Never decant into an unlabelled bottle, and never mix products — some combinations produce toxic gas.
- Store chemicals as the SDS requires, secured for sea.
Disposal — MARPOL
- Cleaning chemicals, solvent residues, contaminated cloths and used solutions are not for over the side and generally not for the grey-water system.
- MARPOL Annex V governs garbage and Annex I oily wastes; chemical residues are landed ashore to an approved reception facility and recorded in the garbage record book where applicable.
- Follow the yacht's own garbage management plan. "It is only a bucket of water" is how a yacht gets fined and a career gets a mark on it.
Onboard Notes
Protection is planned in advance and costs almost nothing. Damage is discovered afterwards and costs a fortune. Read the SDS before you open the bottle, not after the headache starts. This is independent study: xplor is not an accredited training provider, and no certificate or qualification is awarded.