Do I need to put anodes or anything on aluminum boat for saltwater trip?

RevyFisher

Active Member
I've searched on here and googled online but can't really find any details on if I need to do anything to my 19' Smokercraft aluminum boat as I plan on running it for two weeks on Vancouver Island. I see posts about anodes but I don't think there's any on my boat and if not do I have to add any and if so how? Thanks.
 
Are you mooring or just using on a daily basis?

Your outboards should already have some. Take a closer look under cavitation plate, sides of outboards and under tilt etc.

If mooring you might want some on your boat as well.
 
It’ll be very easy to weld a small plate on the transom and install one of those round sacrificial anodes on it. Any small marine shop should be able to do it for you.
 
Cathodic protection is supplied by the use of sacrificial anodes. Fortunately for aluminum there are metals that are even less noble. They include magnesium, zinc and some aluminum, zinc alloys.

These metals can be made into sacrificial anodes. The anodes, when attached directly to an unpainted area of an aluminum hull, will protect any part of the hull that is not electrically isolated from the anode.

Which one is best? For most boats probably an aluminum/zinc alloy. Magnesium is too active in salt water but is sometimes used for fresh water applications. Zinc works well but can oxidize over when exposed to air. This means if zincs are not cleaned when a boat has been out of the salt and the boat is returned to the salt the oxidized coating will protect the zinc and it will not function as a sacrificial anode.

Some aluminum/zinc alloys will function well and not oxidize over so they are better for boats that may be periodically out of the salt water. Anodes do not last forever. Somewhere after 1/3 to 1/2 of the metal in an anode has disappeared it is time to replace it.
 
I've searched on here and googled online but can't really find any details on if I need to do anything to my 19' Smokercraft aluminum boat as I plan on running it for two weeks on Vancouver Island. I see posts about anodes but I don't think there's any on my boat and if not do I have to add any and if so how? Thanks.

is it a new boat ? I put 2 coats of interprotect 2000e grey and two coats of white on mine before i took it to vancouver island. i also put a 1/4 chunk of aluminum anode on it. biggest pain was lifting off the trailer using wood block sand on again. took about a week and worked great. improved fuel efficiency by a good 12% as well. i would only do it if you have a new boat though. its not worth the expense otherwise. you can get interprotect from poco marine for $130 ish for a single white or grey kit which will get you 2 coats on an 18.5 foot hull.
 
Are you mooring or just using on a daily basis?

Your outboards should already have some. Take a closer look under cavitation plate, sides of outboards and under tilt etc.

If mooring you might want some on your boat as well.

Yes both motors have the anodes on them. The ones on the big motor need cleaning up before I hit the saltwater. Was planning to moor it for ease but if its costly its easy enough to pull it out each day.
 
As mentioned weld a bracket on the transom or bolt some anodes on somehow. It’s inexpensive insurance. I had a thin gauge welded boat once and wished I had some protection. It developed some pin holes, not easy to repair.
 
For the price of doing it why not protect your investment...you may not see corrosion issues now but down the road you will once it starts on a tinny it goes down hill fast ...
 
I agree it will be a problem in the future if you’re not protected. The builder of my boat welded a bracket (unpainted) on the pod and put large anodes on both sides. When I was out last week I also picked up an anode kit for the Bennet trim tabs that took 5 minutes to put on.
 

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With the lighter tinnies it’s good to have as much protection as you can get. I had put anodes on my ‘06 Lund on top of the anodes that were on the engines and I still had some corrosion starting on the top of my transom. I caught it early and kept up on it and kept it cleaned and filled with JB weld as to not let moister get into the transom but I’m sure in time it would have gotten worse have I kept that boat and kept going out to the salt water with it. Remember most of the lighter style aluminum boats aren’t made with the same heavy gauge material the west coast built welded boast are, doesn’t take long to have issues with those lighter boats.
 
Hi...I've never heard of anodes directly for the hull. I have an aluminum boat I take into saltwater and have an interest in learning more about this!.
 
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