In days of old, when men were bold…swabbing the deck still was a pain. Being given the task of washing down the decks with a stinky old cotton mop and a wooden bucket was about as low as you could go, one rung shy of being assigned to potato-peeling duty. Even today, this necessary job hasn’t much charm.

Like most boat owners, I like a clean deck, free from bugs, bird-droppings and the like. I’ll also admit to enjoying the feeling of satisfaction I get from washing the deck and making my boat look nice. However, I don’t like the puddle on my interior carpet just below the storage locker where I keep my nylon broom. So I went searching for a replacement.

I found the Boat Brumgee. It’s not a broom and it’s not a squeegee—it’s both. And it doesn’t absorb water so when you shake it off and store it away it doesn’t smell or drip all over your locker.

We used the Brumgee for the latter half of this past boating season for everything from sweeping the interior carpet (to gather up my daughters’ long hairs) to scrubbing the seagull and spider poop off the deck. The rubber bristles on one side of the Brumgee got right into the antiskid and removed the dirt without too much elbow grease. As fall arrived, the squeegee side worked great for wiping the heavy morning dew off the deck before we dried it with a chamois, so we could sit up there and enjoy our morning coffee in September the same way we do in July.

The Brumgee also comes with a dust mitt that’s great for reaching under the windshield and into the tight corners of the dashboard to remove the dust and sun-baked flies. My favorite accessory was the scouring mitt. It made short work of my scumline from up on deck so I didn’t have to swim in the green goo I was washing off the hull. Both mitts simply fit over the Brumgee head, which has a screw-thread that fits the standard floating telescopic aluminum pole or most broom handles. However, what screws on easily also screws off easily under use, so I’d recommend ordering one with the adaptor head to fit a Starbrite, Shurhold or Swobbit handle. For more information visit www.brumgee.com.