I am looking at a 1998 Fountain down in South Carolina and I am concerned that the boat may have been used in salt water. The current owner has it on fresh water but is unsure about the previous owner. It appears that there is some minor rust stains around some of the hardware in the rear only. I have heard that a good indication is to look around where the rails meet the fiberglass. Now if a boat is used in salt water, would it be consistent throughout the boat or just certain areas? I did notice a few rust spots in the engine compartment, but for a 1998, I would expect that. If the rest of the boat "appears" to be in good shape, are there other issues that I should consider and look for.

You need to think about a survey. It will tell you what's right and wrong with the boat and then you can decide if the deal works for you. I lived through a boat that was supposedly "gone through" and it wasn't. The dealer made good on the deal, but I had to chase down the repairs.

That said, the engines, drives and exhaust are I think the areas that need your attention. If the boat has original exhaust, probably needs to be pressure tested. The gimbal and bellows were the problem area on my boat, so I would pull the drives and inspect. Finally, the engines need several different inspections...you didn't mention how many hours. I will defer to the OSO engine gods to advise you. At a minimum, compression test and a look over the top end for broken valve springs.

You can specifiy these areas in a survey. Also, even though its a freshwater boat, the surveyor will check moisture content in the stringers which is another piece of mind.

I'm sure you'll get a few more pointers.

The drives are a biggie. I would want to be sure that the drives have been serviced regularly. If they have paper work to show that the drives have been torn down and inspected once a year or every 100 hour that is good, if not I would want to have someone take a look. When I bought my boat it had 190 hours on it and the drives had never been looked at. When I had them torn down they were about to fail, but we did catch them in time.

Although salt water is hard on the metal components, if the boat and trailer is washed and the engines are flushed I would not let that stop me from buying a clean boat.

all i can say is that a salt water boat that is taken care of will be better then a fresh water boat that is not .
by the way some fresh water lake's have a lot of minerals that will corode just like salt if not worse when not taken care of.

all water is corosive .

a few year's ago i took a 10 hour ride to see a fresh water boat it had more rust then any of the salt water boat's i have ever owned .

my 2 cents
mike

Survey, survey, survey. Do an engine and hull survey. Pay the extra $400-$1000 and get it done. Records mean nothing. You will see a few problems with salt, but if it is well taken care of there should be no issues. Trust me I know.

Ditto on the drives. Use a flashlight to see the steering pins.

I agree 100% Salt water boats require more washing and flushing, but a freash water boat can be efed up also. Worst boat we took in this year was a 1998 fresh water boat original owner,

what the hell is " FREASH " water?

Rust is the same in fresh or salt (its oxidation, nothing to do with salt).

Corrosion is more in salt than fresh (the metals in the water .vs. the metals in the metal, i.e., aluminum, wiring).

I almost never run in fresh water, I'm actually an offshore only guy, unlike most of the posers here ;-)

The problems I see are:
1) Wiring: the engine wiring harness, especially as related to EFI, gets corroded and needs to be replaced every few years. Luckily, if its a Mercury, this is pretty easy and cheap. Just order the replacement harness using your serial number, and it plugs right in (lotsa plugs).

2) Cooling water through the outdrive: This is simply poorly designed in the Bravo. Go with a separate raw water inlet through a real filter, and bypass the drive water pickups.

3) Cosmetic corrosion of aluminum parts, like the dash, throttle sticks, etc.

The really, really big surprise:
The big metal bits (blocks, manifolds, steering, drives except as related to cooling water flow) seem to be unaffected by salt water.

Note that wood stuff, like engine beds, transoms, and trailer bunks, are far better off in salt water than in fresh water. Wood rots in fresh water, but is *relatively* preserved (pickled) in salt water.

Don't ever just trust a marine surveyor. YOU need to REALLY KNOW the boat, learn everything you can. Be as careful as possible with any boat purchase, especially a used boat purchase.

Be certain there are no liens -- marine liens go with the boat, not the owner!

Then I guess flushing the engines is just for chits and grins