So who leaves their boat in the water for extended periods?

[JL8Jeff]

I keep my boat at a dock on the Delaware River from March through October and this usually results in a nice brownish/green algae buildup (this is on all the fiberglass boats I've had). So I need to scrub the bottom down during the summer to keep the buildup in check. This is my first aluminum boat and I'm wondering if I will run into other issues leaving it in the water for extended periods of time. Even with anti-foulant paint I have gotten the algae buildup so I'm expecting it. Anyone else run into this and do they clean up easily? Are there other downsides to keeping an aluminum boat in the water for extended periods?

 

[lckstckn2smknbrls]

I would think some kind of electrolysis from transient voltage could be possible.

 

[Team Colibri]

Sounds a lot like the algea I get on my boat in freshwater here in Norway. But this stuff comes off quite easily, I just swipe over the hull with a cloth and rinse off with water. But whatever you do, make sure you do it right after retreving the boat from the water, if it dries up it's like concrete.

 

[PSG-1]

If you have good bottom paint, and maintain it, then your hull should be OK even if you leave your boat in the water.

However, I would recommend installing an anode, to deal with stray current and electrolysis. For salt water, it needs to be zinc. For fresh water, you would use a magnesium anode. And for brackish, the anode needs to be a magnesium-aluminum alloy. Reason being, magnesium is too reactive for use in salt water, and zinc isn't reactive enough for fresh.

Mount the anode on the transom, below the static flow water line. And connect it to the bonding wire of the motor, or with a bonding wire that goes to the negative terminal of your battery.