Throwing caution to the wind

D

DAKunes

Member
Joined
Mar 20, 2005
RO Number
16656
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22
Realizing that life is short, we've decided to haul our 2005 Cruisers 340 Express from Pittsburgh PA to Naples FL. The rivers I know....but the Gulf of Mexico, saltwater boating...uh...not so much. Boating in a more corrosive environment has me a little nervous, so any basic maintenance schemes would be greatly appreciated. I have the Mercruisers Horizon 8.1S engines in my vessel.

Island Marina on Vanderbilt Road in Naples will be our new home. Look forward to hearing from any other Boat owners in the area. Would be great to connect with others to "learn the ropes" of boating in this new area.
 
store an I/O in a high and dry.
If wet stored use the best antifouling paint available in your area. Barnacles are king.
A full cover or as much protection from the sun as possible will keep it looking good longer.
Be very wary of the changing speed zones in the Naples area.
Do the inside route to Goodland and other areas for a taste of old Florida.
Read Randy Wayne Whites books. All adventures set in nearby areas.
A good depth sounder will be useful. Charted depts are inacurate and frequently changing.
Lots to explore so have fun.
 
learning how to read charts, tides currents etc will also be required. A good chart plotter will be a great help. read the rules of the road because you wont be inland any longer.
 
Barnacles are not bad on bottom paint, but the running gear will be covered if you don't keep on top of it.
Especially the bottom of your trim tabs and shafts, if you have conventional drives.
Saltwater is not terrible, there are so many that boat in saltwater. You just have to keep the boat clean.
After running our boat, I cover the boat in a light spray to get the salt to get back in solution with the
water. Then I hit it again with a light spray, not letting it ever evaporate or dry. Then I wash and rinse.
I don't miss anything. If you do, you will see the salt crystals the next day. I spray the hull too. I don't
like salt crystals.
I don't care how good your stainless steel is, if you don't rinse it good, you will see rust spots one of
these days. And clean/rinse the anchor good too.
I keep my bilge rinsed out as well. Other than that, I don't do much else. Lots of fresh water.
 
Oh I forgot, dont go into the glades after dark in warm weahter. :D
 
I think the main thing is to use the boat. Boats rot quickly when not used, and even more quickly in the Florida sun/salt. It is easier to keep up on things if you use the boat regularly.
 
If you keep the boat in a wet slip, one of the best things you can do is hire a diver on a regular basis to scrub the bottom and running gear. I kept our 36 Trojan in salt water exclusively and when we moved it to Florida my wife and I (both divers) tried to keep up with this chore. I quickly found out it was a whole lot easier to hire a diver cleaning service to do this for us. Besides, after the first time we did this we came away with our hands looking like they had gone for a 30 second ride in a blender set on puree-damned little barnacles are so sharp they cut right though dive gloves and you didn't feel it at the time.

Some diver services offer annual contracts and this can make this type of service surprisingly affordable.

Yeah, yeah, I know, bottom paint is supposed to prevent growth, but they just don't do the entire job. My props and shafts looked like small reefs after just 45 days and the diver service stopped this.

Randy
 
Good, since you are FWC, you don't have to worry about salt water eating up your blocks. If you have a full FW system, your manifolds are covered also, but risers should be changed every 4 years or so. I've had good results with Pettit Barnacle barrier on the running gear and trim tabs.
 
DA- are you going to keep the boat in a slip or rack storage? If you are using a slip I strongly suggest a lift. Also learn how to drain and flush the raw water side of your cooling system (this was very easy on the SeaRay I had with FWC V6's) do this when you aren't going to be using the boat for a while and everything will last much longer.
 
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