Does seawater dissolve power boats?

[Tailwheel]

IMHO, it doesn't dissolve them quickly enough...

[Seacod]

Originally Posted by zeehag

and for the record,l one of my favorite all time boats built was a 1967 egg harbor 37 ft sports fisher. wood and beautiful.
Q240Z has a couple others. and i covet the damncar he aint fixin while he dawdles around wasting time on his chris crafts.... i presume he still has 2 of em....beautiful boats. overgrowed versions of one of the ones i owned.

Zee
Those were lovely boats..my dad had a wooden Post 37 a few years earlier before Russell followed Hatteras over to glass. The Egg Harbors had very pretty lines for awhile there as did the early Posts.

[tuffr2]

I have seen a Fountain Sport Fisher with triple outboards with pitted SS. This, so far is the only boat I have seen with damaged (pitted) SS.

On the west coast of Florida many power boaters keep their boat in fresh water but fish in the Gulf. After fishing they navigate up one of the fresh water rivers to a slip.

This running the boat in fresh water after using in it salt water has to be a good thing.

[Hudson Force]

'just a thought,- I sail on many days with fairly light winds and have little, if any, salt spray over my toe rail. On a similar day many power boats would move much more water with their speed and bow wake and toss up much more spray.

When I have salt on my deck and hardware I usually rinse it off when I have a shore water supply. I expect that, with a power boat and more dock time, which is common among power boats; then, I'd be rinsing more.

There doesn't seem to be much mystery with this to me.

[landsend]

Hudson Force nailed it. Power boaters aren't as set up to live off the hook as sailboats, so rinsing off with marina water is always available. When anchored out for a few days I never rinse off.
Sailor Boy: My boat will dissolve without a good rinsing. Tossing bile on fiberglass also helps.

[ranger58sb]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

Does seawater dissolve power boat fiberglass???

I suspect it's maybe just more likely that we sometimes "enjoy" more salt spray over the deck than you might , even in relatively calm conditions.. Often not even from uncomfortable sea states, but just breeze as the hull slaps a bit and raises water up toward the bow. That's an instant recipe for spray up on our enclosure "glass" and sometimes even up over our hardtop.

The fiberglass is OK, but stain on the rails is a cumulative concern (even on decent stainless) when it might not rain too soon after, and salt on the real glass and the enclosure clears can get fairly corrosive fairly quickly.

Besides, we're obviously not sea-faring quality folks, so we have to do a lot of busy work to make it seem to everyone that we might know as much as your everyday typical gifted sailor who knows everything from birth.

-Chris

[Palarran]

I wash my boat all the time. Why wouldn't you if water was plentiful? Even when it's not or at anchor I'll run my watermaker for a few hours while washing just to get the salt deposits off.

[Kenomac]

When we had our Hunter moored in a slip at Long Beach Shoreline Village, we used to hose it off with fresh water after every use, mainly to keep the stainless looking like new. The powerboaters would do the same.

Nowadays as full time livaboards in Med anchorages six months per year, the boat gets hosed down with fresh after any passages when seawater splashes up onto the deck.

Sometimes we forget.

[a64pilot]

First year I had our boat, it was washed every time it went out and back into its slip.
This was habit more than anything, My background was mostly fishing, rarely took the boat for a ride, we went fishing, and assuming you have been catching, the boat needs washing.
Now I have gotten lazier, and wash much less often, usually only when the bird mess dictates it.

[boatman61]

I like to hose my boats down after a trip..
I find leaving seawater to dry out without a rinse for a long while gives the little iron deposits in the water time to oxidise and cause rust speckles.. especially in the moulded tread area's on plastic fantastic's..

[zeehag]

my formosa dissolves in FRESH water hah aha ha
i wash it with sea water, clean my teak with sea water, and only the rains make stuff go away......

[Kita]

I can tell you that even freshwater can be a problem, I knew sailboat or power if left in saltwater they need a barrier coat of special paint. Don't need that if the boat is coming out when you are done....BUT even a power or sailboat without a barrier coat left in some freshwater lakes can get major blisters, glass is ok but you lose the gellcoat & then it can damage the glass over time & ,well blisters. ...I found this by leaving my Mastercraft in the lake for a month...freshwater with no access to saltwater so 100% fresh.....I have had both & I can tell you if a powerboat that doesn't get rinsed it WILL age quicker..got to also remember a lot of the stainless onboard is anodized as well to protect it,, so is aluminum otherwise the saltwater will attack these elements.. even if it's stainless and there are different qualities of stainless also 308 316 just to name a couple. Bronze is great to resist saltwater but I don't really know how strong it is when you compare it...bottom line, rinse..your boat will stay better looking longer

[Comogene]

Sailorboy:

I had that same thought years ago and have been experimenting for the last 30 years. That is when I bought a '73 Uniflite and decided to keep it in salt water year round. So far, none of the fiberglass has dissolved even thought I wash it at least twice every summer and was it every spring. I have found that when the salt water crystalizes on deck, I can then use it to preserve my steaks and to dry out the cod strips for chewing as I watch my sailor friends lower and fold their sails, tie up the sail covers, coil and rearrange their lines and all the other things they do to make their boats pretty.

My experiment also includes watching the salebotes circle in the narrow confines waiting for the bridges to open because their clearance requires more than the 30 feet available, watch then stand still as the enter the river or the canal against the tide or best yet, arrive at the anchorage aftr a full day of sailing just to find the power boaters frolicking in the water or relaxing with wine and cheeze as the saleors try to set an anchor.

This is what happens when you are killing time waiting for the NE Patriots to show the Buffaclo Bills how the game of football is supposed to be played. Oh ya, I have one of those fivolous devices onboard that I use while the saleors are still making their "yachts" shipshape.

Oops, have to run and wash off the acid rain that fell yesterday and the Osprey poop. Those WILL dissolve my glass reinforced platic.

[Steadman Uhlich]

Some parts can dissolve in saltwater. (Without proper anodes.)

[first wind]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

Sea water corrodes anything metal. Highly polished stainless rusts etc. It a good idea to rinse your boat with fresh water anytime you've been out in salt water spray. A day after a crossing our boat was often covered with enough dry salt to put in a salt shaker!

that depends. you really don't want to be washing your teak decks with fresh water