A Boater’s Five Maintenance Imperatives
by Ken Textor
After 30 years of delivering, surveying, building, inspecting and enjoying pleasure boats of just about every size, shape and means of propulsion, it is a bit daunting to have to settle on just five maintenance imperatives to apply to any boat. But if you want to enjoy your boat to its utmost, and to realize its full value when you go to sell it, keeping the following quintet of quality assurance items in mind will help a lot.
Use It Or Lose It - That’s right. The biggest problem with most boats is that they are not used enough. When a boat lies idle for weeks at a slip, mooring or even on dry land, lots of problems start to develop. For instance:
Fuel, whether gasoline or diesel, is refined on the assumption that it will be used shortly after it is pumped into a boater’s fuel tank. If it isn’t, bad things start to happen to it. In the case of gasoline, gummy deposits begin to form in the fuel tank, fuel lines and even the carburetor. In diesel fuel, little microbes spring to life and start living off certain portions of fuel molecules. When they die, they leave a goopy residue that can clog filters and eventually injectors.
Even motors whose fuel is treated with special potions designed to minimize the sludge problems can be adversely affected by minimal use. Valves are more likely to stick, cylinder walls to score, and mechanical levers to become sticky when they are not used long and strong at least once a week.
And non-use problems go beyond the engine room. Your potable water lines become more likely to develop algae buildups when water sits in them for long periods of time. Salt- and fresh-water intake lines invite all sorts of critters to take up residence when they are not used regularly. In a slip, the southern side of the boat’s gel coat takes a more severe beating than elsewhere and eventually it becomes noticeably duller than the rest of the boat. Likewise, the sunny side of halyards, docklines and sheets are constantly facing the debilitating sun. Rainwater and morning dew sits on paint and varnish in the same manner every day and helps break it down.
In sum, for the best boat maintenance, you’re much better off using your boat than looking upon it as a weekend camp on the water. Boats are made to be used, not sit.
My Kingdom For A Filter - Even if you use your boat a lot, regularly changing the filters is critical – and I’m not just talking about the motor’s fuel filters (you do have two, don’t you?) and the oil filter. The potable water line should have at least one filter, as should the incoming lines for the raw water for the engine and the raw water for the head. Why three more filters in addition to the three engine filters?
A boat’s potable water usually comes from marinas, which necessarily have long, outdoor pipe runs to docked boats. The longer the runs, the more chance the pipes and hoses get exposed to crud-producing sun and air, especially in the off season when the pipes are drained and stored outside. You don’t want to drink that crud, and a good filter prevents that.
Incoming raw water for the engine and head is ordinarily pretty clean. But storms and astronomically high tides cut lose weeds, sand and mud that can easily be sucked into the intakes and cause trouble with impellers, valves and the like. Add filters to your boat and then change and/or clean them regularly.
Cleverly Chlorine - Stinking boats usually have two big sources for their olfactory funkiness: mold and mildew. Every single interior boat surface is subject to the development of these two evil doers. In one season, they can turn an interior surface black and slippery with their offspring and make you boat smell like, well, nothing your friends would want to visit again. They can also start to eat into the polyester resin.
Thankfully, plain old chlorine bleach destroys most mold and mildew buildups. At least once a season, fill up a spray bottle with half-and-half bleach and water and go to town. Alternatively, if hauled out, fill up a garden hose pesticide sprayer bottle with bleach and hose down every interior surface you can reach. Once the bleach has had a chance to mingle with the mold and mildew and turn that black to light brown, hose it all off with clear fresh water. Repeat as necessary.
Heading For A Fall - Stink also may emanate from the boat’s head, even without the presence of mold and mildew. Two sources may be at work here. Incoming water that’s not filtered can bring in organisms that break down and create that rotten eggs smell. And less-than-hygienic guests can mess things up in the head. Installing a filter for incoming water is one obvious solution here. But a toilet brush and a chlorine-based toilet cleaner used after every outing keeps the smell to a minimum. It also keeps the toilet’s valves and pipes from clogging or attracting unpleasant organisms. Also clean around the toilet bowl area with a chlorine bleach solution on a regular basis. Guys can miss, you know. Note too that some marine toilet manufacturers recommend bowl cleaners other than chlorine-based products. Be sure to check before you clean.
Paint, Paint & More Paint - Every Navy, Coast Guard and Merchant Marine veteran knows this one: If it’s not moving, paint it. This philosophy is more than just military make-work nonsense. A painted surface on your boat is not only easier to clean, but it also shows problems before they get out of hand. Streaking red rust shows up on the inside of a cabinet painted white rather than surfaces left as bare wood. Dribbles from small leaks show up in a bilge painted gray better than a streaky unpainted bilge. And so on. Fresh paint also tells a prospective buyer you’ve cared about your boat – all of it. Whether wood, fiberglass, steel or aluminum, every surface in a boat should have a coat or two of paint or varnish on it. It makes your vessel look like a first-rate boat for serious boaters.