Goin' to the beach, store on trailer or in slip?

[270win]

We're taking the boat to Mexico beach in two weeks. We have the option of either leaving the boat in the water all week or putting it in and hauling it out with each use. I'm sure we'll use it more if it's in the water already...even the best boat ramps are a PITA when compared to leaving one in the water.

How much damage will a week of sitting in the salt do to it?

What would you do?

Thanks!

 

[Oldsman]

I am fairly close to where you will be and I would say it would be alot easier to slip it for a week. You should have zinks for salt water. When you put it on the trailer make darn sure you flush it very good and wash it down. Engine and all to help remove the salt water. If you was closer to panama city there is Lighthouse marina that can launch and put it back on the trailer and flush it for you. They have slips there as well and these guys are top notch. They are also a Sea Ray dealer too. I can call them and get a price for you for a slip and all if you would like. I know quite a bunch of the guys there and may be able to pull some strings for a sli[ rather cheap. Will you need shore power?

 

[270win]

I do have brand new zincs on it, I'm repainting the outdrive next week and the Mercathode is in good working order. I plan to bring the muffs and use Salt Terminator to flush for 5 minutes when I pull it.

Will there be any marine growth issues with the boat being in for 5 or 6 days?

I appreciate the very generous offer! I think we'll probably just use Marquardt's Marina in Mexico Beach. It's right across the road from the house we're renting. Panama City is almost an hour away. I was also looking at Port St. Joe as an option, it's 15 minutes away.

I like the idea of slipping it for the week too. Hope the fish are biting near shore...and Red Snapper opens June 1st too!

 

[comsnark]

The boat is a 1990? How does the bottom look now? How long do you keep it in the water now?

If you have a bottom that has never seen paint, and looks pristine, and you never keep the boat in the water overnight. . .I would not put it in for 5-6 days now. Does the marina offer drystacking?

 

[fwebster]

Leaving an unpainted bottom in this water for a week is going to mean some slime and perhaps light bottom growth. At the least you will probably need to wash the hull with acid to clean it up when you put it back on the trailer. If you use the boat every day you most likely won't get hard growth like barnacles and worms. As an intermediate approach, why not load the boat on the trailer mid week and wash the hull with a suitable cleaner then relaunch it. A good coat of wax on the bottom will help as well.

Lighhouse Marina is a drystack storage facility with a small boatyard and a few wet slips. They are not a Sea Ray dealer. If you need parts or service while in the area, Treasure island Marina, across the lagoon from Lighthouse, is a Sea Ray dealer and has a full service shop with qualified technicians.

If you are not familiar with the area, Crooked Island is just west of Mexico Beach. It is as close to a Carribean Island as you will find outside the Carribean. Tne point of the St. joe State park, across the bay from Mexico Beach is one of the best beaches in Fl. Enjoy the beach..........the water is clear and about 80 degrees.

 

[270win]

The boat is a 1990? How does the bottom look now? How long do you keep it in the water now?

If you have a bottom that has never seen paint, and looks pristine, and you never keep the boat in the water overnight. . .I would not put it in for 5-6 days now. Does the marina offer drystacking?

The bottom looks great! It's been dry stacked since we bought it. It did spend some time slipped in fresh water, before that it was dry stacked in Tampa most of it's life.

It does stay in overnight but almost never more than 2 days...in a relatively clean freshwater lake.

 

[270win]

Leaving an unpainted bottom in this water for a week is going to mean some slime and perhaps light bottom growth. At the least you will probably need to wash the hull with acid to clean it up when you put it back on the trailer. If you use the boat every day you most likely won't get hard growth like barnacles and worms. As an intermediate approach, why not load the boat on the trailer mid week and wash the hull with a suitable cleaner then relaunch it. A good coat of wax on the bottom will help as well.

Lighhouse Marina is a drystack storage facility with a small boatyard and a few wet slips. They are not a Sea Ray dealer. If you need parts or service while in the area, Treasure island Marina, across the lagoon from Lighthouse, is a Sea Ray dealer and has a full service shop with qualified technicians.

If you are not familiar with the area, Crooked Island is just west of Mexico Beach. It is as close to a Carribean Island as you will find outside the Carribean. Tne point of the St. joe State park, across the bay from Mexico Beach is one of the best beaches in Fl. Enjoy the beach..........the water is clear and about 80 degrees.

Hmmm...maybe pulling it every third day to wash the bottom, flush the engine and clean the whole boat is the way to go...course I'm pretty sure the admiral won't want me down there messing with the boat all the time.

I'm thinking about just trailering it now. I hate the idea of having a bunch of crap on the bottom of the boat...I'm pretty fanatical about the boat so I probably wouldn't be able to sleep thinking about all the "stuff" attaching itself to my boat.:grin:

This trip is the reason I didn't put a new engine and outdrive on the boat this winter. There's no way I'd take it down there if that were the case.:smt101

BTW- How's the fishing right now??? Hoping to do some near shore bottom and trolling.

 

[fwebster]

Dude........its not acid; its just salt water!

There are a lot of us who boat on the coast year round with no ill effects. You just need to understand how maintenance needs change for salt water. Your boat will be fine for a day or 2 if it sits over night. Most left in this water for a week do have a coating of slime, which is easily removed by spraying (spray bottle) the hull with a 50% water/muriatic acid solution........spray; not scrub. Wash with soap and water when you finish.

If you use the boat every day, then hose it down when you get back in and eat supper. If you use it every day, flush it when you get it back on the trailer.

BTW, I have a boat that lives in salt water now, but for a lot of years I did exactly what you are doing every summer....my last lake boat was an i/o and 15 years old. I sold it when we moved to the coast.......it was seawater cooled, went to the beach 2-3 times a year every year, showed no corrosion anywhere and never needed anything but oil changes and impellers.

 

[270win]

Dude........its not acid; its just salt water!

There are a lot of us who boat on the coast year round with no ill effects. You just need to understand how maintenance needs change for salt water. Your boat will be fine for a day or 2 if it sits over night. Most left in this water for a week do have a coating of slime, which is easily removed by spraying (spray bottle) the hull with a 50% water/muriatic acid solution........spray; not scrub. Wash with soap and water when you finish.

If you use the boat every day, then hose it down when you get back in and eat supper. If you use it every day, flush it when you get it back on the trailer.

BTW, I have a boat that lives in salt water now, but for a lot of years I did exactly what you are doing every summer....my last lake boat was an i/o and 15 years old. I sold it when we moved to the coast.......it was seawater cooled, went to the beach 2-3 times a year every year, showed no corrosion anywhere and never needed anything but oil changes and impellers.

okay okay, I hear ya, so if I leave it in all week and wash it down with a muratic acid/water mix plus soap and water and flush the engine everything should be good???

Did you leave your previous boat slipped or on the trailer all week while at the beach?

 

[fwebster]

I preferred to leave the boat in a transient slip at a marina, but sometimes they weren't available. For me it was more work and took more time to trailer the boat after each day's use. We ended up using the boat more when it was in the water than when we had to factor in the additional time needed to secure everything for storage in a condo parking lot and wash the boat down.

As a side point, this is how I met and became familiar with the Sea Ray dealer in Florida. Now some 20 years later, their personnel are some of the best friends I have on the coast, I keep my current boat at their marina and I never worry about its security because I know their guys are watching it for me.

 

[270win]

I just reserved a slip at Marquardts Marina in Mexico beach. They said they would flush the boat the last day, arrange for trailer parking all week and supply hoses etc for daily washdowns after each use. I'll bring the muratic acid mix and get it really clean once we pull it out for the week.

How far out are the artificial reef structures from the inlet...and another newby question, what's the buoy line???

Hoping to let the kids...big and small catch a few red snapper and Spanish/king mackerel.

 

[fwebster]

A bouy line is a line of bouys marking a channel. There is no bouy line at Mexico Beach...........I don't think there is even a channel marker.

If you mean at Port St. Joe, you should be able to see the bouys in the bay to the east once you get thru the Mexico Beach cut. As I recall, the St. Joe whistle bouy is pretty close in. I suspoect the better mackrell fishing will be at Panama City. The Panama City bouy line extends from the Panama City pass out into the gulf about 3 miles........the sea bouy is 5 or so miles out.


The artificial reefs in this area are all over the place. The numbers are well published, but you may need a WAAS or Differential receiver to put your boat on top of them. Most sunken structure close in are either fished out or are used by drive boats. If divers are down, you can't fish on them.

Do not even think about going into the Gulf without a paper chart with contour lines on it. This area is know for shoaling in the Mexico Beach, Crooked Island areas. THe charts will be wrong since the bottom changes frequently, but you can easily see the bouys and shallow areas on the chart.

 

[270win]

A bouy line is a line of bouys marking a channel. There is no bouy line at Mexico Beach...........I don't think there is even a channel marker.

If you mean at Port St. Joe, you should be able to see the bouys in the bay to the east once you get thru the Mexico Beach cut. As I recall, the St. Joe whistle bouy is pretty close in. I suspoect the better mackrell fishing will be at Panama City. The Panama City bouy line extends from the Panama City pass out into the gulf about 3 miles........the sea bouy is 5 or so miles out.


The artificial reefs in this area are all over the place. The numbers are well published, but you may need a WAAS or Differential receiver to put your boat on top of them. Most sunken structure close in are either fished out or are used by drive boats. If divers are down, you can't fish on them.

Do not even think about going into the Gulf without a paper chart with contour lines on it. This area is know for shoaling in the Mexico Beach, Crooked Island areas. THe charts will be wrong since the bottom changes frequently, but you can easily see the bouys and shallow areas on the chart.

My GPS is WAAS, we use it in the airplane too. You're right, there is no channel marker at the Mexico Beach inlet. I plan to lay down some tracks with the GPS into the channel. My GPS shows contour lines, is that okay or still need the charts? Also have a depth finder with alarm and a bottom machine/fish finder. I don't mind getting the paper charts too if needed.

So how far out can you still see land on a calm clear day?

Maybe we'll just hire a charter boat to go fishing...:grin: I'm not interested in going WAY out.

 

[fwebster]

Using tracks for the Mexico Beach canal is kind of funny. You'll see when you get there......drive thru the hole in the middle of the beach then stay in the middle of the channel, its about 75 ft wide so you aren't gonna get lost.

I prefer to have paper charts at the helm. It helps me maintain perspective. My boat has 2 Furuno plotters and I still have a paper chart open when we are going somewhere. I also like the chart pac's where you get multiple charts for a cruising area. If you like this area, buy one for the West coast of Fla from Mobile to Clearwater. You can do trip planning and develop an understanding of where you are going and what you might encounter using the charts while at home.

You can see about 15 miles from a boat if there is no haze or fog. We get haze in the summer that obscures your vision a little. You mentioned bouy lines earlier....one thing that is critical is to watch every direction if you are trying to fish on a bouy line because everyone does the same thing and everyone fishing seems to think they own the water.

While I'm at it, be aware of the fact that at least in the Panama City area, there is a lot of commercial traffic. Charter boat captains seem to have their own version of the rules of the road. They keep it a closely guarded secret because I still can't figure out where the heck they are going.

The best way to catch fish is to use on of the local guides in a guide boat. I have 2 friends who run boats..both are clean sober local guys who grew up on the water and either on with put you on fish. They take my kids out when they want to go.......I don't want stinking, bleeding fish in my boat! Best thing about a guide boat compared to a charter boat is you go for as long as you want..they charter by the hour, you don't have to charter for 1/2 day or all day. From Mexico Beach or St. Joe its a long run to fish, and you are paying for the riding time. Its best to drive over to Panama City and go from there where you are 30 minutes from the fish.

 

[270win]

Using tracks for the Mexico Beach canal is kind of funny. You'll see when you get there......drive thru the hole in the middle of the beach then stay in the middle of the channel, its about 75 ft wide so you aren't gonna get lost.

I prefer to have paper charts at the helm. It helps me maintain perspective. My boat has 2 Furuno plotters and I still have a paper chart open when we are going somewhere. I also like the chart pac's where you get multiple charts for a cruising area. If you like this area, buy one for the West coast of Fla from Mobile to Clearwater. You can do trip planning and develop an understanding of where you are going and what you might encounter using the charts while at home.

You can see about 15 miles from a boat if there is no haze or fog. We get haze in the summer that obscures your vision a little. You mentioned bouy lines earlier....one thing that is critical is to watch every direction if you are trying to fish on a bouy line because everyone does the same thing and everyone fishing seems to think they own the water.

While I'm at it, be aware of the fact that at least in the Panama City area, there is a lot of commercial traffic. Charter boat captains seem to have their own version of the rules of the road. They keep it a closely guarded secret because I still can't figure out where the heck they are going.

The best way to catch fish is to use on of the local guides in a guide boat. I have 2 friends who run boats..both are clean sober local guys who grew up on the water and either on with put you on fish. They take my kids out when they want to go.......I don't want stinking, bleeding fish in my boat! Best thing about a guide boat compared to a charter boat is you go for as long as you want..they charter by the hour, you don't have to charter for 1/2 day or all day. From Mexico Beach or St. Joe its a long run to fish, and you are paying for the riding time. Its best to drive over to Panama City and go from there where you are 30 minutes from the fish.

Where do you buy your charts? PM me the info on the guides you recommend if you don't mind. I've only seen the Mexico Beach inlet in pics. It looks to be pretty shallow in the pics but the folks at the marina say that some pretty big boats get through there every day. Thanks for the info!

I'm wanting to do this trip because we're looking into upgrading to something too big to trailer down ourselves...may be the last trip we make with our own boat for a while.

 

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