Short term saltwater use?

[jafo9]

I've got a freshwater 22' Suntracker Regency I/O that has lived all of its life at my dock in alabama. We like to take family beach trips to Destin/Fort Walton area in Florida. On our recent trip this summer we talked about bringing the toon down next summer and getting a condo that had a slip on destin harbor. One year we took my skis down to Fort Morgan and it was somewhat work intensive flushing them after every use. I kept them on the trailer after use. we thoroughly enjoyed being able to play with the dolphins though.

So, it is bad to leave a pontoon in salt water for a week. What would i need to do to "protect" it and then remove the salt when i'm ready to take it back to alabama. My toons are not painted and i do have the factory installed anodes. 3 i believe, one above the prop and one on each trim piston.

thanks.

[badmoonrising]

If it's only a week, just a good flushing with freshwater after and you'll be fine. There's actually 6 anodes on the 3.0 (prop shaft, trim cylinders, trim tab, and 2 more on the drive itself.

[HandymanHerb]

I don't think one week in salt water would hurt you, but get it in the fresh water and run it for a long while to wash the salt got into and then pressure wash the under side to make sure all the salt is gone.

Most here that hit the salt for a day stop at fresh water on the way back and run it some to flush it, it would be better if you could pull it out every day and flush the motor and undersides, but make sure you hit the bottom as the salt has all kind of places to hide and start corrosion.

[Livebait]

One additional thing to consider and that is if you have a carpeted bunk trailer. One launch and reload will not flush out all the salt. I used to take a Suntracker 24 footer down to the intercostals waterways in NC for a week a couple of timer a year. Worked great until one year I only launched in fresh water once before putting it up for the winter. The boat sat on the trailer for three months before the first Spring launch. I had probably 100 pinholes in the bottom of each pontoon log where the carpet made contact with the logs. Flush the carpet well before any extended storage time.