Advice needed on salt water use
 

Until now, I have only used my boat in fresh water. However, I have now planned a one week trip to the Florida Keys in early May. It's making me sick to think about dropping my boat in the salt, but I really think we'll have a great time.

Here is my dilemma. Where I am staying (Hawk's Cay) I can either:

1. Leave the boat in a slip right ouside my door (in the water). Obviously this is very convenient.

2. Leave the boat in the slip during the day only and trailer it each evening. This would allow me to do an engine flush and washdown every day.

I know #2 is clearly better, but I'm curious to know if #1 will cause any significant corrosion over the course of only 5 days.

Thanks for your input.

#1 is a WAY better way to go...for 5 days of partying you'll be better off leaving it in the water...just flush and wash it every day...use dish soap when flushing...this will better than do'n it 1/2 ass due to the party factor. make sure the mercathode system is working.

you better be down there for may 16th,,, for the pro races i hope,,right??!!!LOL

One other thing to consider is barnacle growth. If you are using it everday, it shouldn't be a concern. A lot depends on the water temp, and the tidal flow where you are docked. A few years ago, I put a boat in a wet slip for a week while I worked on the trailer. It was late summer and the place where I had it was at the end of a canal with no flow at all. In that one week, I had barnacles over a half inch high all over the bottom. During that week, we also had a hurricane, but that's another story.:)

Take it down, leave it in the water and have some fun.

Leave it in the water and enjoy it. If really concerned you can put muffs on it and flush the engine in the water, assuming you have a hose at the dock. You'll be able to see the bottom the water's clear there if needed just brush it a little. If your using it daily there will be no problems.
Have fun the keys are great. Go up to the sand bar at Holiday Isle.

Re: Advice needed on salt water use
 

Anyone else ??????

Is the Salt Away stuff a waste of money? I've heard that dish soap actually contains salt and may make things worse.

Putting your boat in salt water will make it deteriorate instantly. :D

J/K Keep it in the water, have fun and don't sweat it. A couple of days is not going to hurt it. You fresh water guys .. LOL :D

I boat in salt water every week and no problems. The key is to wash every time you go out. As far as flushing, I think that it will harm the motor very little over that short period of time. Hell, I have friends that refuse to flush after salt water and nothing seems to happen, although there is residue when the water passages are inspected. You'll be fine.

The 3 times i have gone down to the keys (each time for about 1 1/2 weeks) i left the boat in the water the entire time. No problems at all. All i did was wash the boat down with fresh water at the end of the day and when i pulled it out to go home i ran the boat for a good hour in a fresh water lake instead of doing a quick flush.... :D

After this trip, you'll probably want to move to The Keys.
Forget about the salt, it's really a non issue for that period of time. Try & keep the salt water off your Sunpad & carpets as it never seems to dry out completely. More of a concern would be having a good chart of the area as it can get shallow real fast as you will see the water is so clear that it is sometimes hard to judge depth.
Enjoy

Hows about the trailer?????????

When I was in Marathon, I seen alot of the fishing boat guys back their trailers in only till the rubber of the tires were wet, not even to rims, and then powerwinch the boats up onto the trailers. And these were galv trailers.

spray all metal with w-d40 or silicone spray and don't worry till you pull it out, then flush it and wash everything good, even spray the trailer if its steel

Don't know if it is a waste as I never had a new motor so I didn't worry about it. Now that I had new motor installed, that was the first thing I did. Now I will treat with it after each salt water use.

You just don't understand !!! (sniffle) When I recently replaced the water circ pump on my 98 454 Mag (160hrs), the color of the water passages was 100% SILVER. Not a speck of rust. The thought of saltwater in there for 5 days makes me sick to my stomach !!

I've been through 3 circ pumps on my 454 Mag. I don't think it was because of salt water use. Just a bad design.

You live in Florida and never see salt? I run in a mixture of fresh, brackish, and salt. My last boat had 600+ hours on it when I sold it and it still had all the original cooling stuff except the thermostat. My current boat has close to 400 hours. I did have to replace the exhaust last year. I flush with plain fresh water when I get home.

Dave M.

You will be fine. Make sure you anodes are all in place and ok. Wally's idea of taking it to a lake and running it is MUCH better then a hose. The trailer also will be better to dunk then to just hose down. with a good run all that salt will be out of there and you will be good to go back next year :D:D

Jon

It will be worth it, trust me

My comment about replacing the water pump had nothing to do with saltwater use. I've only been in fresh. My only point was that the water passages look brand new. So I'm real picky about going in saltwater now that I've seen how clean the motor has remained with nothing but freshwater use.

Don't misunderstand me. I have no doubt that engines run in 100% saltwater can do very well if they are maintained and FLUSHED thoroughly. My question is whether or not I should leave my boat in the saltwater for 5 days (without flushing it), or pull it out every day to flush it.

From my understanding there are 2 types of annodes. 1 for salt water and the other for fresh water. However, I really dont think it's going to matter for a weeks time. I was pressure wash the chit out of it once it's on the trailer ready to go back home. Flushing the engines of course.

Have fun. Nothing will happen in 5 days. Wash everything, flush and rinse the trailer when you are done. Don't forget the trailer brakes.

Use a map around the keys. It is a lot of fun!

Steve