Salt water boats

[jth21usa]

Has anyone had any good or bad experiences with buying a boat in the New Jersey/Long island area? I see a lot for sale there with really low hours and 4-5 thousand less than here and think how bad can salt water really be?

[Sk8man]

A couple of things are important in thinking about it: 1) salt water is VERY corrosive to most metal. Most boats that are run in both fresh and salt water need to be "cleansed" or flushed properly of the saltwater after being in the salt water environment. Corrosion causes all sorts of electrical problems and messes up contacts on wires and batteries gauges as well as engines. 2) A lot depends as in freshwater specifically how the boat has been cared for during its lifetime....some of these problems are slow and chronic and some may be hidden and hard to detect until they start to fail. If you are talking significant money you may want to have a competent marine survey of any seriously considered boat for a few hundred bucks as it will be worth it in the long run.

[Total Chaos]

This is just my experiences for boats from salt water. I've bought 2 in recent years and both showed no issues. I bought a 23ft Trophy that was like new. It even smelled new. No issues and ran great. No corrosion, no electrical issues, no nothing. The owner after me loved it as well. That boat came from CT. I bought a Baha that came from NJ and it was slipped all the time. Again no issues from the salt water. I did change out the zincs when I got it home and had to pressure wash some barnacles off it but other than that, again no issues. It clearly will depend how it was maintained and you just have to be smart about what you're buying. Both of the boats I bought were OB's, I'd be more skeptical of I/O's and inboards from salt. Best bet is to get a surveyor. May cost $500 or so but will be well worth it. I chose not to use one for the last 2 boats and I was lucky.

Total Chaos  

[TileMan Dan]

Most important aspect of buying a saltwater boat is how it was cared for. As previously stated flushing and cleaning after use, only takes a few minutes but some dont bother. Be extra careful with boats from jersey shore and LI as there are many that took a drink during Sandy. Owners under insured or not at all still trying to unload them. My current boat was saltwater but have no problems with. Just use care in your purchase.

[guffins fisherman]

I was in Naples, FL this winter for a week. Obviously, a huge boating culture there. I didn't see one single IO. I asked our friend why. He said the barnacles, clams and salt are murder on the boots and outdrive. I also noticed a huge majority of the boats with outboards were on lifts when not in use. So, clearly a salt water environment is really hard on equipment. My first boat came from salt. I bought it as a result of me not knowing any different at the time. That thing was a mess. Every bit of copper was coated in corrosion, and would just fall apart in your hands. Even the wiring inside the coating was corroded. The outboard motor was not rated for sal, and clearly not flushed often enough, and was corroding from the inside out. At this time, if I were to be looking seriously at a boat from a salt water environment, I would not even listen to what the owner is saying, and have it surveyed. The seller will often tell you what you want to hear to get out from under it.

[Xxx]

The boat I have now was in salt water, it was originally a lake Onieda Lake boat, to make a long story short so you DON'T make the same mistakes I did, take the boat for a aggressive run before purchasing. I just had the guy use the water muffs and let it idle for half hr. seemed alright. Bought the boat put it on our local lake idled out past the no wake zone opened the carb up and the temp shot right up to peg the heat gauge. Shut her down waited a good 1/2 hr. Took her back to the dock now we're running on only a few cylinders, pulled the plugs and water came out every cylinder on the port side, and both exhaust bellows were hot, pulled risers and exhaust manifolds made plates to pressure check manifolds and both were bad risers were corroded shut. $600.00 later and $300 for new risers and exhaust manifolds should be good to go, right- wrong, still getting water in all 8 cylinders WTF. Ok let's think about this, how in the hell could water be in all 8 cylinders, the intake feeds all 8 cylinders so took the plates for the exhaust manifolds put them on the intake permatex the hell out of the plates made a plate for where the carb sets with a air chuck hardly any pressure and we could hear air leaking, the manifold was rusted through internally allowing water from the thermostat housing to leak into the fuel runners. Found another manifold all is good right wrong, pulled motor now I'm just going to rebuild the entire motor, heads were junk, got a good set of heads from my uncle who runs modified dirt track and builds motors for the dirt circuit the only thing he used was the crank, block, rods&pistons because they were 30. Over. what I paid for the boat I have in parts for anything that came in touch with the salt water, even the lower shift cable that was exposed to the salt water. Three years later I finally got her to where I feel safe with it, I even replaced the thermostat housing as that was rusted to crap, new boots shift,driveshaft, exhaust, and shift bellows. I bought this boat off of a minister, a man of God who lied through his teeth, and told me I should have been more thorough with my inspection, instead I took his "word" for certain things, he told me it was gone over by a Sea Ray dealer by us. I called this marina, they never heard of Pastor so and so, don't that figure!! Definatly take a run on the water, these days people are more aware of salt water boats and people do flush out their motors. Personally I wouldn't touch a salt water boat, but that's my opinion!!

[lakebound88]

SURVEY.

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[rolmops]

Even when an I/O has a closed cooling system. The manifolds still see salt water only and it ruins them.

Edited June 13, 2016 by rolmops

[Xxx]

Even when an I/O has a closed cooling system. The manifolds still see salt water only and ruins them.

Couldn't have said it any better!!! Salt rusts out your car eats the wires to hell, why wouldn't it do the same to the engine if that shyts running threw its veins!!!! I learned with my walletLOL.

[muskiedreams]

Pap, The Pastor probably thinks he can sin all he wants, as long as he confesses and asks God for forgiveness. He doesn't have to confess to those he sinned against.

[srd]

Going through that now. Bought a salt water boat with only 600hrs. State of the art flushing system. Now replacing the motor in whole from  internal rust. I'd never do it again. Just my opinion.

[jth21usa]

Actually I'm only looking at outboards, any issues there?

[Bozeman Bob]

I would say your only issue is that you probably will be replacing the engine in a few years unless itis a newer one that was designed for salt water use and it was religiously flushed after every use. I would not be worried about the wiring, trim tabs or actual hull. What size/ make of boat and engine ???? To some of the post above, most salt inboards are closed cooling and the actual block is fine running in salt, the exhaust manifolds are replaced every 5 years or so vs 15-20 on fresh water. If it is a open system expect to replace the engine. I bought a salty last year and have had no issues and was about 17,000-20,000 less than what I would of paid if it was a freshy. I could replace both drivelines all the wiring and still be ahead. I would do it again and it was surveyed.

[Xxx]

Going through that now. Bought a salt water boat with only 600hrs. State of the art flushing system. Now replacing the motor in whole from  internal rust. I'd never do it again. Just my opinion.

That's exactly what mine did!! The outside looked as if you could eat off of it. The inside was so rusted we even hesitated using the block. So I had the block cooked and we blew out the water jackets and hoped it didn't rust through, so we had the block pressure checked and it passed, so the games got started. So my uncle and I rebuilt the motor. She's a 350 bored 30 over good marine cam and the best of every thing else. Even. Had the lower unit rebuilt also the salt water killed the copper, tube inside from the pump to the engine and all the seals. I could go on & on but I think got the Pic.

[lakebound88]

Even when an I/O has a closed cooling system. The manifolds still see salt water only and it ruins them.

That's not a 100% true. Not all closed cooling systems move seawater through the manifolds.

Most, run from seawater pump to oil coolers to a heat exchanger to the risers and out the exhaust...

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[Little Crappie]

Ummm pap, I don't think that guy was even a minister lol. That's some shady stuff right there.

[srd]

That's exactly what mine did!! The outside looked as if you could eat off of it. The inside was so rusted we even hesitated using the block. So I had the block cooked and we blew out the water jackets and hoped it didn't rust through, so we had the block pressure checked and it passed, so the games got started. So my uncle and I rebuilt the motor. She's a 350 bored 30 over good marine cam and the best of every thing else. Even. Had the lower unit rebuilt also the salt water killed the copper, tube inside from the pump to the engine and all the seals. I could go on & on but I think got the Pic.

Hear that. Going new all the way with mine. Never again for me that's for sure.

[Xxx]

Yea I hear ya there man, if I wasn't mechanically inclined it would have cost me dearly. Instead it cost me time. Like a season and 1/2!!

[EsoxAC3]

SURVEY.

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As has been stated.... Fresh or salt water.... Worth every penny. Lot of good value boats come from salt water just have to exercise more caution when investing. Good luck!!

[Captain Carl Bish]

Here is my 2 cents......  It all depends on what you are buying and price here is my advice:

 

If you are spending 60-100% of value of the boat new.....must survey

30%-60% of value of the boat new..... survey so you know exactly what is wrong/right with it

<30% of value of the boat new.....dont waste your money on a survey and plan to get what you pay for....that is not necessarily a bad thing as you could get years of service out of the boat.  If you are not a DIYer you will not want this level of boat and plan on spending $5-15K on engines at some point.  DO NOT borrow money to buy this level boat.

 

The best boat always is the one you paid cash for!!!!

Edited June 17, 2016 by Captain Carl Bish

[Xxx]

So your telling me and the others that a survey would have picked up what a precision high performance engine builder and myself didnt, I can you if you have a plug missing been around the racing industry since I was 12, the motor didn't skip a beat on muffs for a 1/2 hr., how much pressure is there at an idle. A lot more at WOT!! Going out over the water, that would remove all the scale and the valve seats just go away from the rust. Let's back up to the Preacher mans house, the water that came out of the exhaust was clear and warm. Brought boat back hooked muffs up again and chunks of rust scale was coming out, not mud. There was no water in the oil, by the third thing we tried the intake in the front where the thermostat sets in was rusted so bad you couldn't tell there are directions in which the water is to flow. After replacing the manifolds how would you say, water could get into every cylinder yes, all 8 Freaken cylinders I mpossible right!! No what object would deliver water to all 8 cylinders the carb can't, but what the carb sets on can, because the water jacket in the intake rusted through and delivered liquid sunshine to all 8 runners. Do you think a survey would have picked that up. Shy of the minister it would of taken an act of God to pick this up, so now I would be 6-7 Ben Franklins in the O before I ever started, the boat itself is spotless. You could eat of the outer shell of the engine. He told me he just put a new motor in it because up in Onieda, the block froze and busted. He used to dry dock it at a marina, he had all the paper work to prove his mouth. But he failed to tell me he went to the bay for fluke and sea trout, which he let slip after a few phone calls to him to let him know how bad he screwed me. A man of God told me to get bent in a much more meaningful way.LOL. There are boats on here I kick myself for not waiting!! My wife said that when I bought this boat, the economy was much better and people weren't selling thing just to make ends meet. Carl, I'm not calling you out, but I don't think the best surveyer in the world would have picked this mess apart!! When your working with your wallet you tend to remember all the little nick-nack things!! Not trying to excuse any of my actions, but both my father in law, my uncle and I kind of were more lacked in our poking and prying around just because of what or who we were dealing with. This is still not a excuse to my purchase!! To all those who are looking at a saltwater boat, if it's before 2004 don't purchase, the SaltWater engines have Teflon coated water jackets and a special designed wash down system. Those are outboards I don't know about a I/O.

Edited June 17, 2016 by pap

[Sk8man]

You guys both make some good points to really think about and pap's experience sure points up limitations as far as placing "blind faith" in anything including (people's word included) and a competent survey because unless the engine is entirely disassembled to look at before buying you never really know the status of it when buying used you are always taking a risk from a probabilities standpoint. The survey does however lessen the probability of detectable damage or wear that the average buyer might not be aware of. Everything has its limitations.and you are always left with taking some degree of "chance"

Edited June 17, 2016 by Sk8man

[Patriot]

You'd be doing yourself a big favor by staying away from any boat that has been used in salt water.

[work2fish]

it's a crabshoot even if exercising due diligence. I just bought a salt water boat and had the outboards scoped by a dealer. even with this extra effort who knows what can happen.

On a side note. What should I do to the engines (outboards) coming from Salt to fresh? anodes? Impellers? Thanks

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[Xxx]

I totally agree with you Les, when you buy a used car what's the first thing that comes to mind, " why are you selling this gem" Most of all "what's wrong with it" at least with a car you can wiggle some sort of a warranty, with a boat, I will never buy another without a written and notarized signed statement from the seller!! That I will put my hand on the great book and hold my word to it!!!