nautique in salt water?

well im moving to destin, FL. and am currently looking at a used super air nautique. im curious as to the usage in salt water and how it effects these boats. does it destroy them? or can you maintain them and keep them running strong and not mess them up? id love to hear some advice and experience from anyone. thanks alot in advance.

-Jeff

Jeff, I had the same situation. Here is my post:

http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/messages/3183/569311.html?1208993520

thanks alot for the link Matt! does anyone know of any fresh or low salt places to ride? is there even anywhere good to get smooth water around there? thanks again.

Jeff

He Jeff,

I live here in LA (Lower Alabama), you will love it here, the coldest water temps we get are in the upper 50's to low 60's. I checked yesterday and our water temps are approaching 75 Degrees.

There are some great places to ride, I am sure others will chime in once they see Destin in your post.

I just started boarding last year and am loving every minute of it, we hang out alot at crab Island, you will have a blast there it is just north of the Destin Bridge by about 100 yards.

I see in your profile you are a pilot, who do you fly for, or are you military?

I just have a small 19 foot Chaparral, nothing fancy but we have fun in it, I have had no major issues running in salt, as long as you clean all the time and I treat my engine with Boeshield T-9, alot more expensive than WD-40, but a whole lot better product. IMO.

Weskel

Thanks for the reply, ya im an air force pilot, and i cant wait to get down there, just wish there was fresh water SOMEWHERE! is there anywher to ride w/ smooth water? see you at crab island soon!

-Jeff

http://www.planetnautique.com/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=10996&hig hlight= FYI!!!!

WELCOME

We have a couple of people who ride down here. The hands down best place to ride is "The Ditch". It is the inter coastal waterway east of Destin about 30 min. The BEST place that I have EVER ridden in my entire life. The place is amazing, love it.

As for the fresh water, About 1 and 15 from Destin is Florala - its right on the border of AL and FL hence the name. It is a very small lake, that is only good on the right day. Forget weekends in the summer, but its kinda nice in the off season or weekdays. However, once you ride the ditch, salt water will be less of an issue to you because the water is that awesome.

Lastly we are attempting to get "Days at the Ditch" going this year. Everyone will go out ride all day, maybe camp or just come back the next day and do it all over. That is going to be around the 24-26 of May. Should be a good time!


-Sam Adams

The Ditch is so awesome because they had to dig down to sea level when the dug the inter-coastal, so on each shore is usually about a 20+ high wall of dirt/sand, that protects the water from the wind.

Here is a Picture

As for boat in Salt. The weakest link is your trailer. A galvanized trailer is a must.

After that it will be your engine internals and manifold. To protect internals you can get closed cooling. However, this is a misnomer as it is not really "closed". The internals do not receive raw water, however raw water is used to cool the liquid used to cool the engine internals. Once the Raw water does that it moves on to cool the manifolds and then shoots out the exhaust. Therefore, even if you have closed cooling the next thing to watch is the manifolds, and I hear you get about 5 years out of a set. Not really sure though.

But its not really the big of a deal if you religiously flush. Other than that i her to just spray everything on the engine down with WD-40 and you should be set.

wow thanks for all the info everyone! The ditch sounds and looks like my kind of place. unfortunatly i wont be there by end of may. I'm not moving til mid summer or so. of course its the air force's time line not mine! but i cant wait to get down there! How exactly do you go about flushing the engine? do i need to get a fitting kit or something to hook up a hose? thanks again.

Jeff