A friend of mine wants to bring his 38zx to Florida for the winter. The boat has never seen salt. Should he be looking for a place with a lift or dry stack? How long can you leave your boat in a slip in salt without ill effects? Thanks

I brought my Formula down here last October and it's fine, but I keep it on a lift out back behind the house, before I brought it down I had fresh flush-out installed on it, makes all the diff, other than for a few days, maybe a weekend or so, I would never leave my boat in the water, gotta have flush-outs and be on a lift or dry store it and he'll be fine.

I wouldn't leave it in more than a day or two. You'll start getting VERY mild growth after a few days.

salt water...ahhgh.a boats worst friend

I bought another boat, with outboards, so I would hardly ever have to salt my Fountain and it's pristine 525s. When I do take it in salt water we thoroughly wash and flush it the next day. So far no signs of salt use!

a night is the longest I have left it in the water and thats only because I am at a point where I really don't need to be moving it!!! I would suggest racking it and wash with soap and flush after every use and he will be fine! Maybe a little corrisonx if he is that paranoid.

More than 2 days and it will rot the drives right off...


Seriously, I came down here with a pristine lake boat. Over time, the only things I have noticed is that it faded the drive & tab paint a little more. The fiberglass seems to need waxing more often too but that might be the salt grease (salt air residue) Never had any salt issues with the engines at all. As someone stated above, do a spray down with a good water inhibitor on the engines and when you take it back up north do a spray down and you will be fine.

a guy i know left his 25ft wellcraft in the water 3 months, he could have opened an oyster bar with the ones attached to his hull, what a disaster... i would never leave my boat in the water more than overnight and only if i was gonna be on it or had a machanical or trailer issue... "if you take good care of it, it will take good care of you"...words to live by! and you can apply them to almost anything in life except, the entitlement state. lol

I would suggest a lift & flush it after every run in salt , if it's going to spend the winter in salt water . If it was only a few weeks that would be a different story , let's face it , salt eats everything , no getting around that . Other suggestions above about corrosion inhibitors & flushing + salt away or something similar are all spot on . Good luck & keep her as salt free as possible

Without bottom paint you will start seeing "critters" in about 10 days. I have had mine in the water for about a week before with no real effects. If you have a good coat of wax on the hull (i.e. Colonite fleet) you will be ok a week at a time. After that you may want to swim below with a brush and get after it every 5-7 days.Make sure the zincs are current and tight with no pait insulating them from the drives.

My business partner keeps his Paramount CC on a lift behind his house and it does fine as long as the lower units are out of the water. He has a 29' Sea Ray Amberjack with Volvo Duo props that stays in the water...it's 3 years old and he has already bottom painted it twice and replaced both drives.

I have been boating in SE Florida for 35 years and am religious about flushing after every use, I learned from an old fisherman in the Keys about the use of Dawn Dish washing liquid when flushing raw water cooled engines. I squirt about 3 OZ of Dawn in each flushing connection each time I flush and let it sit in the water jackets as a last step when I flush. I did this with my '78 F-18 Formula with a 302/188 MR-1 Mercruiser and had the same exhaust Manifolds and Risers for 9 years!! Salt Away is also a great product.

If you flush after every use and spray the drives and engines down with CRC Marine regularly you will be fine. Just be aware that NACL+H2O is an Electrolite and ALL metal parts of your boat are sacrificial!!