Alcanboats Forum

Obviously you west coast guys survive quite well in salt water. Do you do anything special to maintain/preserve the aluminum ?

The reason for my question . . . . . I have installed teak decks on Catherine Ann (see website tech article) but in our fresh water Great Lakes environment the teak goes black with mould each season. It has been suggested that washing down my decks with salt water will solve this and artificially create the grey look of teak in a salt water environment.

I have not done this because I wonder about what the salt will do sitting in all the nooks and crannies of the aluminum hull.

Thoughts / comments welcome

Rob

I hate to answer a question with a question, but what are you using to clean the teak? It would seem to me that teak cleaner is far more harsh than salt water and would be a greater worry. I have seen a few of these boats on the West coast exposed to year-round salt water. You can tell they are not fresh water boats, but you would not accuse them of being rotten either.

From discussions with my father, the important thing seems to be the submerged parts. Active defense in the form of sacrificial anodes is the order of the day and avoiding ground loops from shore power.

Interesting to note, that one of the greates threats comes from civil engineering where metal structures, such as bridges, have active protection in the form of power supplies that force electrical current into the surrounding area to protect a metal bridge. Parking an Aluminum boat near a bridge in a salt water environment could be a death sentence.

David

dpearson wrote:Rob

Active defense in the form of sacrificial anodes is the order of the day and avoiding ground loops from shore power.

David

You guys know a lot more about this tech stuff than I, but another note on sacrificial anodes... I was told to be use zinc for salt water but very important to use magnesium for fresh water.

Hi Rob, Before I start, great pictures of your boat with the teak decks, looks great. Anyways I'm lucky and unlucky, we keep Eboness at the Richmond Yacht Club which is in the middle arm of the Fraser River. It's not salt water but a higher level of fresh water with salt water mix, tidal. My biggest concern is being the only boat in the club that's metal, ie. I'm the sacrificial zinc for the club. Best defence is to first get a galvanic isolator. Space and time limits what it is and does, so google it. Also a good bonding job on all your vessel's grounds is next and finally buy a great battery charger, http://www.xantrex.com/index.asp as some boaters use Can Tire car chargers which is a really big no no. I have a Xantrex 40 amp Smart Charger. Also I noticed that Mercury Marine is now sell aluminum sacrificial anodes. My personal opinion is use only zinc as they have been around forever and I find it hard to believe that a aluminum anode would work better on a aluminum boat. Just my thoughts, anyone else? Oh there is a difference on what you use in fresh and salt water, anode wise, but again google it and you will see why.

Take care

Patrick

All:

Thanks for all the feedback . . . . but I think you missed my original question. I am not going to put my boat IN salt water . . . . .I am thinking about WASHING IT with salt water (and then a fresh water rinse of course) as perhaps a gentle way to keep the mold out of the teak. My question is what happens when salt water gets into all the nooks and crannies and paint scratches etc on the decks and topsides ? Is paint blistering a problem ?
I have so far stayed away from the teak cleaners because of the warnings of what this harsh acid will do to paint. I have been cleaning my decks with an occasional light powerwash, but this is beginning to take the natural oils out of the teak.
Re all the anode discussion . . . . we all become the anode for the harbour (fresh or salt) if we are not careful with our shore power ground circuits.
Re sacrificial annodes . . . it all goes back to the periodic table we learned in school. Aluminum will protect steel. Zinc will protect aluminum. Magnesium will protect aluminum even better, but goes away too quickly in salt water (but is ideal for fresh water)
As everybody likely knows, regular copper based bottom paint is the kiss of death for an aluminum boat. I rescued Catherine Ann after 3 years with copper based bottom paint and fixing this was the first major project.

Rob,

We are currently moored next to a gorgeous one-off Sparkmann and Stephens wooden boat built in Maine about 30 years. This sailboat has spent the last 10 years in fresh water and has a gorgeous teak deck, which has never been varnished. The current owner refuses to do so and it looks grey great. He wets it down daily if he can with fresh water only and as small cracks develop or gaps over time, he just uses a syringe and epoxys it closed with neat tape protection. Nothing else. He says this is less work than constant re-varnish. The wood surface looks fantastic and tight.

robert stork