Re: saltwater
You can put it in the water for a week. It really depends on access to the type of water use you want from where you can put it. Sometimes it can be a long run from where you are tied up to where you want to use the boat. Pirates Cove in Nag's Head is bad that way. If you want to fish off shore you first have to make a 10 mile run to the inlet, and of course back home at night too. <br /><br />I kept my boat in the water one year, I would never do it again. The boat aged more in that one year (9 months actually) than it has in the other 13 years of its life. It certainly hastened the boat's rewireing by a couple of years. On the other hand we put it in the water and stay on it for long weekends from time to time in the salt. Hatteras is real good for that.<br /><br />Most of the time we simply leave it on the trailer and leave the boat on the Outer Banks. Its a 450 commute from my home to where we park the boat. So I drive down (8 hours almost to the minute), pick up the boat, fish for a long weekend, and then I wash down the boat and take it back and park it. I give it a quick rinse down each day it's used as well, but I only really clean it at the end of the long weekend.<br /><br />With my last engine I quit flushing entirely sometime around 1996 or so. With the old engine we had to use earmuffs and run the engine to do the flush. I realized how bad an idea that was so I quit flushing all together. It never hurt the engine a bit and in fact that engine (1989 Suzuki DT-200) is still pushing around a Boston Whaler. Then I got the new engine and it has a flushing port that can be used without the engine running. So I piced up a washer hose to make the connection and now I flush again. The way its set up an a Suzuki I simply hook it up, turn on the water, and then go about my other business for a half hour or so. That's OK with me because there is no chance of doing damage to the engine. <br /><br />As far as the pumps and such, I don't worry about them. Our boat doesn't get all that dirty when we fish. We have a high pressure and high volume raw water washdown system (Groco C-60) so the boat gets an almost continous salt water wash all day long. Aside from hosing off anytime anything gets on the hull we usually mix up some soap and wash it down the cockpit on the ride back in from fishing anyway so the boat's clean, all we need to do is the quick fresh water rinse after its out of the water and don't worry about a full quarter-car-wash fresh water pressure washing until the last day.<br /><br />Been doing it that way for years and we don't have any particular corrosion issues.<br /><br />Oh, also, when I bring the boat home in the fall (sometimes its quite cold by the time I come home) I always at least back it into a local lake and run the engine for a bit. Most years I try to take it for a quick run (half hour or so) in the fresh water lake as well. If you have already added stabilizer for the winter before this little run it gets the treated gas into the injection system too. I guess that was off subject but worth mentioning.<br /><br />Thom
<br /><br />Btw, by having the boat at home I was able to used the 115 Johnson Seahorse to train my neighbor. I really dont like the new-age lounge-music jazz thats popular. When he plays it and cranks up the volume with the window open, I play my Seahorse at 5000rpms. No one gets to hear much of anything
and can I help it if the exhaust pours out of the motor and into his window?!?!? Hes been trained.<br /> 