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Leaving boat on the water for extended period of time


demo9asx

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I have an opportunity to get a slip at a very reasonable rate for the remainder of summer. This would make those quick after work sessions more feasible not having to tow, launch and retrieve.

Question for those who leave their boats on the water for the summer (no boat lift), is there any special prep that I need to do or I pretty much have to accept the fact that the hull will need a good scrub at the end of the season?

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Nothing special, except to make sure none of your ballast lines or any other thru hulls leak, including your shaft packing. And yes, it will need a good scrub at the end of the season. 50/50 mix of lysol toilet bowl cleaner and hydrogen peroxide works wonders.

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Wax it alot. If it's in water long enough you will need to acid wash it to remove the stain, and then it won't have any wax. And then the water blisters start.

Or you leave the stain and wax over it to keep water from blistering the gel.

Enough wax should keep the stain at bay for a few months. Depends on the water and wax.

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Something I picked up on TMC a couple of weeks ago - close off all of your through-hull ballast valves when you leave the slip. Definitely give the hull a good wax job before you drop her in for the rest of the summer.

Sounds like you will be in the water, not on the lift. How protected is the slip from passing boats/wave action and windstorms? That will sort of dictate how you want to secure to the dock.

You might want something like this

http://www.bakesonline.com/detail.aspx?ID=1446

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Wax it alot. If it's in water long enough you will need to acid wash it to remove the stain, and then it won't have any wax. And then the water blisters start.

Or you leave the stain and wax over it to keep water from blistering the gel.

Enough wax should keep the stain at bay for a few months. Depends on the water and wax.

My boat has lived every summer in the water since 07, this is season number 7. I have never waxed the bottom of the hull, only down the sides as far as about where the fender is on the trailer. Never had any issues with blistering or staining. Use the mixture I noted above and the stains come right off with little effort. And the river we keep the boat in turns the hull a pretty disgusting brown within a few weeks of being in there.

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The slip is very protected with a no wake zone strictly enforced so securing it to the dock is not a big deal. Thanks for the link, I will definitely look into that.

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Is it the slough you're mooring it at? I had my old enzo in there for 6 seasons, Hull will turn green within 3 weeks but cleaner will take it right off. I used starbrite boat bottom cleaner and it was effortless. Covering the boat after use will definitely keep the interior nicer.

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Yeah, thinking about it. Will likely alternate the spot with another buddy if we decided to go for it. Boat will definitely be covered.

Still have a hard time with the idea of not having the boat within my arms reach but I'm sure after a few after work sessions not having to tow the boat back will change my mind :lol:

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Was the best thing I ever did mooring my boat in there. At least tripled my usage, never had a problem in there, used to leave all my boards hanging on the racks and all gear in boat uncovered in the open. My interior took a kicking not putting cover on. I would never tow a boat again.

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We've been leaving our boats in the water for 2 months every summer for the last 40+ years with no issues with water blisters or permanent water line. We have always waxed our boats from top to bottom and I go around the hull with a soft brush in my skin diving gear right before we pull the boat out at the end of the season. Granted, I credit a lot of that to the pristine Ontario water. When you can see bottom in 15-20 feet of water, it seems to take a while for anything serious to form on the bottom of the boat. If the water is anything like that where the slip is, I'd wager that the hull will be fine, especially if you follow the other advice above.

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......................a few after work sessions not having to tow the boat back will change my mind :lol:

Sounds like your in for your best summer yet.

Starbrite & a garden hose will clean it up pretty easily. Wax it beforehand & it'll clean up even easier.

Know how your Perko switch works..... my bilge pump used to be on one battery only so I had to leave it on 1 at night. I've since moved the bilge pump directly to the battery, bypassing the switch. So I turn the Perko Off at night now.

I remove my stereo faceplate & Exile speakers & put them in the back locked up. I take my SkySki & anything of any real value home. Only thing in the boat is a few vests & ropes. And if I want those to dry out completely, I take those too.

Watch your prop packing & make sure it's leaking at the right rate.

I have my slip rigged with mooring lines, carabiners & PVC so I don't need to use any bumpers. Makes it nice to be able to tie up or untie quickly without digging all your bumpers & dock ties out.

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Sounds like your in for your best summer yet.

Starbrite & a garden hose will clean it up pretty easily. Wax it beforehand & it'll clean up even easier.

Know how your Perko switch works..... my bilge pump used to be on one battery only so I had to leave it on 1 at night. I've since moved the bilge pump directly to the battery, bypassing the switch. So I turn the Perko Off at night now.

I remove my stereo faceplate & Exile speakers & put them in the back locked up. I take my SkySki & anything of any real value home. Only thing in the boat is a few vests & ropes. And if I want those to dry out completely, I take those too.

Watch your prop packing & make sure it's leaking at the right rate.

I have my slip rigged with mooring lines, carabiners & PVC so I don't need to use any bumpers. Makes it nice to be able to tie up or untie quickly without digging all your bumpers & dock ties out.

I will second this regarding the bilge pump and the battery. My 2001 SSVLX and my 2006 VLX did not have the bilge pump wired directly to the battery, so I had to leave the Perko switch on which wore out the batteries. I finally had the 06 VLX rewired and eliminated that problem. The current boat came wired correctly from the factory. I had a close call with the first boat (and the first one I moored) involving the battery, bilge pump and the drive shaft drip rate.

I try not to leave the boat in for more than 6wks at a time max before pulling it out for a cleaning. It gets rather nasty sitting in the Willamette River. The 06 VLX did develop a small area of blisters in the gelcoat, but those sanded out easily. The other boats have not had a problem with blistering.

I don't leave any expensive boards or skis in the boat, but do leave ropes and 'boat vests'.

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I added a locking aluminum tool box under the observers seat that I screwed to the floor to act as a strongbox for stereo HU, tools and such. To keep honest people honest....

Permanent dock lines with SST carabiners make life SOOOO easy.

I suggest adding a second auto bilge pump tied to the 2nd battery if you have one.

DeWalt makes a cell based alarm system that has a tracking system and the ability to have a magnetic contact that I had thought of using on the observers seat protecting the amps etc. the system is designed for equipment or job site sheds or offices.

Have fun.

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So in the last month or so we've had a couple of things going on on our beach that are a little shady. Some kids are climbing our fence & partying on the beach, big bonfires, leaving a ton of beer cans/bottles, etc. One night I found sandy footprints inside the boat. But nothing missing..... probably because I don't leave much in there. They did manage to lose a gas cap for me. Broke the cap off the chain & who knows where it is. I only had about 1/2 a tank of gas in it & there wasn't any missing. But 2 other boats on our dock were missing gas.

So, I'm thinking about how to catch them in the act. I live about 2 blocks away from the beach & docks. Far enough that I don't hear all that going on. I can swing by from time to time to make sure there isn't anything going on. But I wondered about installing a digital game camera on the boat. The kind of thing that guys put on a tree to catch pics of deer & bear. Might get a picture of a rat if I'm lucky.

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So in the last month or so we've had a couple of things going on on our beach that are a little shady. Some kids are climbing our fence & partying on the beach, big bonfires, leaving a ton of beer cans/bottles, etc. One night I found sandy footprints inside the boat. But nothing missing..... probably because I don't leave much in there. They did manage to lose a gas cap for me. Broke the cap off the chain & who knows where it is. I only had about 1/2 a tank of gas in it & there wasn't any missing. But 2 other boats on our dock were missing gas.

So, I'm thinking about how to catch them in the act. I live about 2 blocks away from the beach & docks. Far enough that I don't hear all that going on. I can swing by from time to time to make sure there isn't anything going on. But I wondered about installing a digital game camera on the boat. The kind of thing that guys put on a tree to catch pics of deer & bear. Might get a picture of a rat if I'm lucky.

You could ask to borrow the neighbors wireless. All sorts of options with an old Android phone.

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Along with the good advice about making sure your bilge pump remains energized while away, I would also ensure the auto feature works everytime you visit the boat. Op check that is.

A strong rain squall can sometimes lots of water in a boat even with a cover on.

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You could ask to borrow the neighbors wireless. All sorts of options with an old Android phone.

Can you run with that a little? Seems like a phone would have a lot of LEDs or light coming from it that would allow it to be seen pretty easily. Plus it wouldn't have any of the night vision capabilities that the game cameras come stock with now.

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So in the last month or so we've had a couple of things going on on our beach that are a little shady. Some kids are climbing our fence & partying on the beach, big bonfires, leaving a ton of beer cans/bottles, etc. One night I found sandy footprints inside the boat. But nothing missing..... probably because I don't leave much in there. They did manage to lose a gas cap for me. Broke the cap off the chain & who knows where it is. I only had about 1/2 a tank of gas in it & there wasn't any missing. But 2 other boats on our dock were missing gas.

So, I'm thinking about how to catch them in the act. I live about 2 blocks away from the beach & docks. Far enough that I don't hear all that going on. I can swing by from time to time to make sure there isn't anything going on. But I wondered about installing a digital game camera on the boat. The kind of thing that guys put on a tree to catch pics of deer & bear. Might get a picture of a rat if I'm lucky.

Had a similar thing happen at our lake a few weeks back. Came out in the morning to find the backs of all our tarps loose and the gas cap on the back of my brothers boat open. They were trying to get gas but didn't have a long enough hose to get gas from our boats but managed to drain a buddies sea doo. They couldn't figure out the synch straps on my Evolution cover so couldn't get at my gas fillers. Ended up chaining up the vehicle access to the beach at night. Hopefully that helps.

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Thanks for the tips everyone. Looks like we're going to go for it. I'm sharing the slip with my buddy and we'll alternate every 2 weeks. Should be fun!!

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So in the last month or so we've had a couple of things going on on our beach that are a little shady. Some kids are climbing our fence & partying on the beach, big bonfires, leaving a ton of beer cans/bottles, etc. One night I found sandy footprints inside the boat. But nothing missing..... probably because I don't leave much in there. They did manage to lose a gas cap for me. Broke the cap off the chain & who knows where it is. I only had about 1/2 a tank of gas in it & there wasn't any missing. But 2 other boats on our dock were missing gas.

So, I'm thinking about how to catch them in the act. I live about 2 blocks away from the beach & docks. Far enough that I don't hear all that going on. I can swing by from time to time to make sure there isn't anything going on. But I wondered about installing a digital game camera on the boat. The kind of thing that guys put on a tree to catch pics of deer & bear. Might get a picture of a rat if I'm lucky.

So funny story. I grew up just outside of Fayetteville, NC. Ft Bragg is home to many different special ops groups. We had trouble with people jumping fences and partying on our lake from outside neighborhoods. They were leaving trash on the beach and once caught the woods on fire. The fire was the last straw. I had some buddies, all of whom are very good at their job, execute an observation mission one weekend. They rotated watch groups in a couple different places hidden in the woods where they could keep eyes on the beach. When the partiers showed up early morning saturday (like 1am) they actioned on the partiers. They treated it like a breach mission. Hog tied all the kids, they were in their complete spec ops get-ups, and scared the snot out of all the kids.

Partying on that beach stopped after that night.

So I say make friends when some people who have "a particular set of skills"

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Yeah, seems like a common theme unless you wire the bilge pump directly to the battery. The last thing i need is showing up and find my boat at the bottom of the river

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Can you run with that a little? Seems like a phone would have a lot of LEDs or light coming from it that would allow it to be seen pretty easily. Plus it wouldn't have any of the night vision capabilities that the game cameras come stock with now.

Look up baby monitor apps. Motion sensors. Auto camera/video/audio. Pretty neat. I don't think any leds woud be on unless charging and there is probably an app to turn that off. Night vision would be a problem though.

A real security type system or game camera would probably be better. I always look for free first though.

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