Wet Slipping a New Boat in Fresh Water

[traderfjp]

Our new Yamaha 195S will be docked for several months in a slip at Lake Lure in NC. The water at Lake Lure is fed by the French Broad River and the water is very clean. I read about one guy who had his boat in a wet slip and had incredible corrosion and that was in freshwater (might have been from electrical cords in water at dock). I wanted to ask members who wet slip their boat in freshwater, for the summer, if they are having any issues with corrosion?

Thanks!

 

[Billtex2000]

Negative. No power at my marina, but still...never had an issue.

 

[traderfjp]

Negative. No power at my marina, but still...never had an issue.

We drove the boat home with its galvanized trailer and there was already corrosion on some of the bolts when I installed my Cobra Jet. For 42k you would think they would give us stainless hardware instead of hot dip galvanized crap. I was actually thinking of replacing it all with stainless.

 

[Julian]

Been wet slipping my Yamaha jet boats for 15 years....the only issue is them getting dirty and growing algae on them. In Raleigh NC, that growth takes about a month to begin in earnest and by 2 months you have a decent coat of it. To the point that my boat would go from a top speed of 45-50 down to 35-40. A reduced top speed all on its own is no big deal, but you have to understand that it also means that to go 25mph you might normally only need 5000rpm, furry you will need 7000, a 40ish% increase, which will mean a 40ish percent increase in fuel consumption. Is it a show stopper....no. I have no corrosion. My dock has power. I check the anodes annually, and they have little degradation.

So now I use an airdock lift at my slip to offset this. Is it necessary....no. Do I like it.....yes. But I don't like a dirty bottom

 

[ripler]

I'd really be concerned if boats are getting corroded at that marina because of stray electrical currents.

ESD & FAQ

WHAT IS ELECTRIC SHOCK DROWNING? Electric Shock Drowning (ESD) is the result of the passage of a typically low level AC current through the body with sufficient force to cause skeletal...

www.electricshockdrowning.org

 

[fatboyroy]

Cant help with wet docking but man I miss riding my bike to lake lure and chimney rock, got some nice scenic route in your area.

 

[Canuckjetboater]

Our new Yamaha 195S will be docked for several months in a slip at Lake Lure in NC. The water at Lake Lure is fed by the French Broad River and the water is very clean. I read about one guy who had his boat in a wet slip and had incredible corrosion and that was in freshwater (might have been from electrical cords in water at dock). I wanted to ask members who wet slip their boat in freshwater, for the summer, if they are having any issues with corrosion?

Thanks!

@traderfjp .....NONE at all - BUT my slip is at least 100 feet from slips that have power pedestals. You will know within a few weeks if there are stray electrical currents near your boat as you will see galvanic action on your anode(s). I waxed my hull with carnuba-laden wax - Meguiar's Yacht Gold and washed the hull every couple of weeks by hand with a soft brush when the boat was on anchor at a beach. At the mid-point of the summer I pull it, wash it on the trailer and put it back in. I gave my OEM HD Interstate starting battery to a friend and bought a killer battery: Northstar TPPL. It needed no charging at all except what was provided by the engine's stator. I did buy a Noco 40 lithium jump-charger "just in case". My boat is docked in a protected part of the marina but if it was in an area that had a lot of wave action I might have bought a couple of snubbers for my dock lines.

 

[Scott Huse]

Been wet slipping for 3 years no issues except for growth on the bottom. One way I reduce this is pull it out once a month clean it and usually take it to another lake for a change of scener. This lets me save on fuel too because I always fill up when trailering, every other fill up not marina gas saved me over $200 last year.

 

[mrcleanr6]

Yes i wet slipped my last yamaha and i will be with my new one. I am in fresh water at my marina which does have power btw. The river goes out to the bay which is salt but i am about a mile up river past the brackish point so its slipped in fresh but driven in salt. Anyway never hd a corrosion issue and you really shouldnt. If you do in fresh then that is a freak thing and not the norm. There are about 6-7 yamahas that i can think of on the river that are wet all season long. No one here has a problem. We also dont get growth at all but the bottom gets stained orange something fierce from all the tannins and iron in the water. I still pull the boat every 4-6 weeks, powerwash the bottom and spalsh it again. End of season i just acid wash it and the orange comes right off. If i was you i wouldn t worry about it. Keep the bottom clean and your good

 

[traderfjp]

Cant help with wet docking but man I miss riding my bike to lake lure and chimney rock, got some nice scenic route in your area.

I see you moved to Florida. Do you miss NC?

 

[fatboyroy]

I see you moved to Florida. Do you miss NC?

I actually lived in atlanta, moved to florida July 2020 when the mortgage rate dropped. I put 20K miles on my bike spent mostly on TN, GA, NC, SC mountains on weekends, I miss the mountains for sure, its a trade-off I can ride and boat all year round but its a flat no curve ride here in florida so its boring to me. I gotta replace it with remote island camping lol. I dont miss atlanta, but I miss the restaurants there.

 

[Five Faces]

I wet slipped for about 10 weeks here in mid-TN this past summer. No corrosion to speak of but my top speed went from about 50 down to about 30. Everyone said that large of a performance drop has to be more than just the algae growth but after acid washing the hull my top speed went right back up to 50. I immediately bought a used lift and I'm now much happier!!! BTW - If you're not familiar with acid washing it is a NASTY, NASTY job.

 

[JetBoatPenguin]

I agree with Julian above. . . we're closer to you at Lake James... but what Julian described is normal. After about a month you start to see the bottom pickup some algae.
Make sure you have a good secondary - always hot - Bilge pump. We use a floater switch on ours for when it rains a lot - we have an uncovered slip. (see our setup below)
As a plus you can always send your kids in when its really really cold water to scrub the bottom . . . priceless.

 

[johhnyboat]

Been wet slipping for 3 years no issues except for growth on the bottom. One way I reduce this is pull it out once a month clean it and usually take it to another lake for a change of scener. This lets me save on fuel too because I always fill up when trailering, every other fill up not marina gas saved me over $200 last year.

I am moving from a 280 Crownline to a 2015 AR210, I am really just concerned about leaving the boat in the slip when it rains or not going to the boats for weeks at a time. Did you put on a float on your bilge pump and plug into a battery tender?

 

[Scott Huse]

I am moving from a 280 Crownline to a 2015 AR210, I am really just concerned about leaving the boat in the slip when it rains or not going to the boats for weeks at a time. Did you put on a float on your bilge pump and plug into a battery tender?

I installed an additional bilge pump with a float switch and connected it directly to the battery in the area beneath the cover for the clean out ports. This allowed me to shut off the batteries and still have the peace of mind it would not sink.

 

[mrcleanr6]

i did the same on my 232. sort of. i actually kept the original bilge pump but ran a fused hot line right from the battery to the bilge pump switch on the dash. this way when i shut the battery switches off the pump remained hot. if for whatever reason i wanted to be able to shut the pump off, i still could. for the most part though i left the switch on all the time.

 

[johhnyboat]

That's what I was thinking. Well, I don't have to worry about it for now. The boat I put a offer on was sold direct by the owner..
Since the inventory is so low I'm looking at buying new. For some of the prices I'm seeing for 2-3 yr old boats I can buy new.