Yes, there are products that will kill the COVID-19 virus, but sadly there are also many companies who seek to exploit the situation by making claims about their products that are simply false. In fact there are only two basic raw materials in chemicals that kill viruses, alcohol and chlorine bleach (provided the products are not too diluted). Please see the information by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Even though these are the facts, you will still find many alcohol and chlorine based products completely ineffective. The reason for this is alcohol in high concentrations evaporates from surfaces very quickly. To kill a virus on a surface, it would need to stay on the surface for at least 3-4 minutes. This would mean you would have to apply the product several times for it to be effective. Similarly, chlorine based products need to stay on the surface for approximately 5 minutes before the virus is killed.

On boats chlorine based products are not advised as they can damage and bleach various materials as well as being very hazardous. Alcohol based products will dry out and damage surfaces such as wood vinyl,leather and other fabrics. There are many chemical manufacturers that will tell customers their products kill the COVID-19 virus. But bear in mind, these products have not been tested on the COVID-19 strain, and like a vaccine, there has not been enough time yet to develop specific products for this.

At The Smartboat Company we say „the science suggest that our products would be effective against this strain“ as it is against other similar viruses within the standard time minutes contact time and used according to our advice“. We back up all claims with the appropriate datasheets covering the technical and chemical specifications as well as information needed to ensure our customers know how to handle the products safely and make the vessel living areas safe at all times.

The Smartboat Company along with its approved partners have developed a system to ensure boats are odor free and bacterial sanitized with particular emphasis on making all surfaces „ uncomfortable“ for COVID-19 to reside on and flourish. By using The Smartboat Company special cleaning products and following our system, we are able to make an unused boat completely safe within 2 days.