leaving a boat in the water
 

so i leave my smaller boat in the lake by my house all summer. My question is how hard is this on the outdrive? It has a bravo 1 with an alum. prop. The fiberglass always looks fine, i just acid clean it at the end of the year no blisters in the fiberglass or anything. But my outdrive and prop has a lot of oxidation to it at the end of the year..So is there some easy steps to help this from happening without pulling the boat? Will this hurt the outdrive or prop? It maybe electrolysis im unsure?

as long as you have all the proper zinc's on the boat, it should not cause any problems. we leave our boat sit in the water all summer, and have never had a problem. However, i have a volvo sx, not that I can imagine it makes much of a difference.

Would this help? Mercathode ?
also the boat is hooked up to a shore power for the battery charger

lake? not great salt lake? use magnesium, not zinc. and Volvo aluminum seems to be tougher than Merc. at least the creeks on the Del river seem to beat Merc aluminum up worse than any others.

Because its hooked up to shorepower its crucial the zincs are in good working shape. As mentioned, magnesium for fresh water.

Yep, magnesium all the way. If you cannot find mag, use the aluminum anodes. The zincs are near useless in fresh water. The last 4 boats I have had were in the water 24/7/365. A good coat of bottom paint, correct anodes and clean runnig gear go a long ways.

thanks guys, ill have to put a coat of black bottom paint on my outdrive, and a good magnesium for it also....Should the prop be fine or should i paint that as well?

alot of people do it and boats last. But the fact is put metal in water it will corrode faster than not in water. Personally I would never leave the boat in the water. If I had a cottage or anything else it would be on a lift.

DON'T paint the outdrive. Most bottom paints have copper in them and having copper over aluminum will cause corrosion due to being dis-similar metals. Also seeing that your in Michigan, use VC-17 paint, don't use some cheap black paint. VC-17 is ultra thin, goes on smooth and won't build up like every other paint. The original color will go on copper color but will change to a gun metal gray as it sits in the water. This is the only paint I use on my sailboat. And when I changed from ablative paint to VC-17 I picked up .75 of a knot. That's a lot on a sailboat that only goes 6.5 mph to begin with.

Only use bottom paint of anti-fouling outdrive paint made for aluminum. West Marine and Interlux make it in spray cans. Trilux 33 for your outdrive is your best bet. No copper. It is made for aluminum and steel hulls. The spray cans I spoke of above is Trilux 33. You can get it in "clear", but it does not seem to be as efective as black.

The best way to keep it clean is run it every week or so. Or jump over the side and scrub it down occasionally.

If you do use bottom paint, always (ALWAYS!) leave an inch or more border of no-bottom paint around your outdrive to seperate it from your hull's bottom paint. The copper in the bottom paint will react as a dissimilar metal with your outdrive and/or anodes and cause havic with your corrosion issues.

As Redhook suggested if you paint your outdrive only use paint designed for it. My suggestion is don't paint it! Over time you'll get paint build up and your drive will look nasty! I've always kept my powerboats in the lake for extended periods. Eventually you will need to pull it and refuel. This is a good time to clean it in and out! With the right cleaner, cleaning your hull is easy and quick. In addition your boat will hold its value better without bottom paint, but I am biased and hate bottom paint on a trailerable boat.

I agree 100%. A nice shiny outdrive is always best. Only put bottom paint on your hull as a last resort. Noting better for resale then a clean hull and outdrive, both with no bottom paint. Easy enough to pull it out occasionally and pressure wash or clean......

I wouldnt ever do bottom paint on the hull, just asking about the outdrive....just thought if i got the right approved paint and gave it a shot of black paint it would slow it down some...worth doing still or just leave it and clean the **** out of it at the end of the season? It will stay in the water for the 5months...

Using the Trilux 33 from a spray can gives good results. The finish is not quite as shiny as using Phantom Black, but close. The general rule is to use one full can per outdrive. I did this with my Amberjack (twin Bravo 2 outdrives) that was kept in the water year round and had good results. I used Trilux 33 on the runnig gear on the other boats I have owned that were kept in the water as well.

We've always had great luck painting our outdrives, but we strip them pretty much every season and re-paint. It generally takes about a day to do it right, but we're able to get some other things done while the paint is drying, etc.

We've always just used the Merc Phantom Black from Westmarine, but I always wanted to use a more durable paint, with better shine.

Do you use zincs/mags? And if so, are you careful not to paint the mating surface of the anticorrosive metal (zinc or mag) to the outdrive? With changing zincs every year and painting we have virtually zero issues with corrosion. We never ran magnesium, never had to. We just changed the zincs every year even if they didn't look too worn.

Also, do you run a battery switch, and do you switch your batteries off when you're not using your boat? Some people say it doesn't matter, some people say it adds to the metal parts corroding. We always shut ours off.

ok so in freshwater do you use zincs or mags? Battery switch i leave on to power on the charger and charge both batterys

Magnesium. Your battery charger should not go through your battery switch. It should always be connected straight to your batteries. As should your bilge pump.

We've always used zincs, that's all that Westmarine stocked back then (we haven't had a "leave-in" boat in about 5 years), but everyone else apparently says to use magnesium. Zincs worked fine for us though. Fresh paint lasted the entire year, no corrosion, we would just be missing a bit of paint of the bottom of the skeg from running through Muskamoot bay shallows, but still no corrosive problems.

I agree with Redhook about the battery chargers not running through the switches. They shouldn't need to be "on" to charge the batteries.

I could be wrong about the switch....havent seen the boat all winter

Mine is in fresh water from May to Sept every year. Magnesium anodes all the way. Zinc anodes will do NOTHING in freshwater. Aluminum anodes are OK but Mag does a far better job.

Zinc = Saltwater
Alum= Salt or Fresh
Mag= Fresh Only

I run my Mercathode and new Mag anodes every year. Virtually no corrosion to the drive with this setup. I touch up the drive every year with Merc phantom black enamel paint. Jump in and wash the drive, sides and what I can reach of the bottom every weekend.

i would only apply paint to cover exposed metal. look at other boats were you keep yours, look at drives especially for erosion. if 110 volt is not properly wired, this will show up in accelerated erosion. if there is problem might look into some kind of lift or airbags.

I was going to post about the Mercathode system. Does it help?

If your plugged into shore power make sure your connected to at least 1 8' ground rod close to the shore power source. Ground potential differences can cause electrolysis.

Merc drive anodes have been aluminum from the factory for years now.

With the Mercathode system, are there pucks or zincs of somesort that wear out over time? If so i need to replace them...

Anyone?

Usually the Mercathode system is used in conjunction with your zincs. I say "usually" but really mean "always".

If you leave your boat in the water with shore-power applied to charge your batteries, you would be an absolute fool to not have a galvanic isolator in line with your power cord. Stray DC current can be present on the ground line of your shore cable and this can cause very real damage in a short amount if time. This changes the voltage level of your boats grounding system and really amplifies the properties of dissimilar metals (this is when the Mercathode is fighting AGAINST from happening). The ideal amount of voltage between the boats ground and the anodes is appx -1.1 volt. Yes, minus 1.1 volts. Anywhere btween -0.9 and .1.15 is good for having alumnum outdrives. These numbers fluctuate a bit in brackish and fresh water thought.

Most marinas have a small amount of "leakage" like this. A friend of mine had a 30-ft Trojan at a neighboring marina. It took less then 1 month for both struts and rudders to almost entirely disintegrate. He had a part of one rudder left the size of your hand and both shafts were swinging free after they left the boat via the stuffing boxes. Said he had a little vibration until he pulled it. Lol! This was due to an extreme case of galvanic action.

My steel-hulled Chrish Craft Roamer would literally blister the paint off the hull because my active corrsoion control system was out of whack. To MUCH protection is also very bad. Maybe even worse in some cases.