Moving to salt water

[Fishhaggis]

Have a great boat.... that has only been on fresh water. Moving to the coast and looking forward to exploring the marine environment. Will trailer it in and out on day excursions, maybe a weekend in the water. Any suggestions on getting my aluminum Thunderjet boat kitted up for salt water? How do I protect the hull? How the heck do you paint or put on anti fouling while on the trailer?

Will change the zincs and will need to learn about tides. My navigation fish finder system is ten years old now, so am thinking of modernizing. So confusing as there are so many options out there.

I am wondering if I should just bring it in to a local shop where I am moving to and have them do whatever is needed to make it salt water friendly. Moving to Parksville, BC, so any suggestions on a good spot to bring it?

So excited to explore the Sunshine Coast.

 

[kaelc]

Thunderjet should be fine for saltwater as long as you have Zinks. I wouldn't put on anti-fouling unless you are planning to moor it for a week or more and even then better to just pull it out and power wash.

I'd go for a Lowrance HDS 7 or bigger but I'm sure the Raymarine/Garmin stuff is just as good. HDS allows you to add radar, if you don't need that the lower level Lowrance stuff is good too.

Parksville Boathouse seems to be well regarded.

Enjoy it should be a great move!

 

[agentaqua]

Zincs. You will need to check your anodes on both your hull and your lower end. And it doesn't hurt to rinse out the saltwater entrained into your intake on your lower end after a saltwater trip if you are pulling your boat out and storing for a while. Those earmuffs and a hose works or find a launch on a river on your way home and start it up and run FW thru it.

Other than that - really no extra effort required. Antifouling: if you trailer it and keep it out of the water will take care of itself - mostly. Organisms die after a day or 2 being dried out and in the sun. Decent updated charts for the area you intend to fish on your plotter/fish finder are a must - not the year of the plotter.

And watch your weather - besides the tides - obviously. I always carry a waterproof ditch bag w a spare everything no matter whose boat I am on. Spare handheld VHF, spare handheld GPS, batteries for the handhelds, a few tools, fuses, cable ties, magnetic compass, a towel soaked with dish soap to wipe on the windows, etc.. Anything you think that might go wrong but only requires the forethought to be prepped.

 

[Drewski Canuck]

Is your trailer galvanized? Does it have oil bath hubs? Salt kills motors and trailers. Your wiring will be a gong show until all connections are coated with Dielectric grease. As for lights, if not LED then switch them over. Bulbs always corrode.

As for the engine, you did not say what you are running. Alot of the Japanese products are very salt water tolerant, some not so much. Clean the anodes with a wire brush. They are meant to dissolve. Check to see if the hull even has an anode on it. Usually a softer aluminum anode is used on a welded aluminum hull, but again, put on an anode, clean it, and change it.

Now for the winter on the coast. Humidity is a killer on boat storage. It rains and sleets alot in Parksville area in the winter.

Lots of fungus will grow so clean the boat thoroughly before storage inside and out. Try to get it stored under a roof. Your tarp can cause condensation, so you may want to get some pails of drying pellets if you go with a poly tarp set up. Either way, tilt it and check that the drain plug is out and that the drain is flowing freely. Nothing worse than musty smelling upholstery in the spring.

Drewski

 

[Rockfish]

As for the engine, you did not say what you are running. Alot of the Japanese products are very salt water tolerant, some not so much. Clean the anodes with a wire brush. They are meant to dissolve. Check to see if the hull even has an anode on it. Usually a softer aluminum anode is used on a welded aluminum hull, but again, put on an anode, clean it, and change it.

I understand that if you do brush your anodes to remove heavy white powder that it is important that only a high quality stainless steel brush is used. Regular steel brushes etc. can leave metal residue on the anodes which will affect the electrolysis protection system and not in a good way. We don't brush anodes unless they really need it, and perhaps it is better in most cases, if they really need it, to just replace them.

 

[Augie]

Not sure about the places in Parksville but the local mechanics in Comox are booking into July. It might be worth doing any work you need to have done before you come

 

[searun]

Hopefully your boat is an outboard and not river jet. Jet drives are almost useless in ocean swells due to cavitation.

Some good advice already offered regarding ensuring your zincs are good - change them at least once per season. Also, many people forget to change out the internal zincs inside the main engine block. I change mine every year and you would be surprised how much they are eaten away. They are easy to change, just make sure the "o" ring is in good condition so you achieve a good seal to the engine block water jacket.

Good practice to always flush your engine with fresh water after use when possible. If you moor your boat, many outboards have an adapter which allows you to connect a water hose to flush it while still in the water - good idea to also purchase a quick connect adapter to make this faster and easier to connect the hose.

Tides can really significantly change ocean conditions especially if you have wind blowing in the opposite direction as the tide - this condition will lump up the waves closing the wave period making things pretty tricky at times. So good idea to carefully choose weather on first few trips so you can ease into learning the wind - tide effect.

If you are fishing off Parksville, be ever watchful for sudden winds that come from on shore to the water - Qualicum winds. They can rip it up pretty suddenly on hot summer days. Not trying to be alarmist, some knowledge of local conditions can be very helpful and when you see winds developing its easy to quickly head in.

 

[Old Fisher]

Have a great boat.... that has only been on fresh water. Moving to the coast and looking forward to exploring the marine environment. Will trailer it in and out on day excursions, maybe a weekend in the water. Any suggestions on getting my aluminum Thunderjet boat kitted up for salt water? How do I protect the hull? How the heck do you paint or put on anti fouling while on the trailer?

Is your engine an inboard? Does it have a heat exchanger?

 

[Fishhaggis]

the motors are outboards, mercury 115 with a mercury 9.9 kicker. Will make sure I flush the lower ends with fresh water and a muff After each trip. Had not thought of the trailer! Its galvanized, with oil bath hubs. Will check the lights and switch to LED if needed. live on Great Slave Lake now so used to big water, but will be super cautious on the sea for the first while. Likely go out on a fishing charter or two just to see how the pros do it. will get new zincs when I am down there, for the hull and each engine. will play with my Standard Horizon Chart Plotter. May need to update that. interesting About the humidity as where I am now it’s arid like a desert, so never any mould issues. Will have to keep an eye on that. This is all great advice. Thanks.

 

[Pippen]

For fishing gear @Derby can likely help you at Pacific Net and Twine in Parksville.

He knows a thing or two.

 

[Dogbreath]

live on Great Slave Lake now so used to big water, but will be super cautious on the sea for the first while.

How is GSL for logs in the water?

Because it's another thing to watch carefully for down here especially with higher tides lifting every damned thing off the beach not to mention the Fraser River freshet (which is happening now).

 

[searun]

lol, you mean log landmines!

 

[Old Fisher]

lol, you mean log landmines!

Definitely need to be watchful for Logs and deadheads, especially in some areas. Great Slave is full of rocks and reefs so you are probably mindful of those. The west coast is an underwater mountain range, full of rocky hazards, again especially in some areas. Your chart plotter or at least a chart is mandatory. A few decades back, before chart plotters and GPS, I used to run around Barkley Sound with a chart and my hunting compass in my lap until I learned the area. Chart plotters make it much easier!
The ocean is more of a "pain" than most lakes, with salt water, tides, fog, rocks, logs etc to contend with but you will love boating here. You will see and experience more things here than ever on a lake. The ocean is alive and fascinating. Have fun and safe boating!

 

[agentaqua]

Adding to the sage advice from OF, searun & others on logs/debris - debris collects in tide rips, and along the slower moving water nearer the edges of channels. Avoid these areas if possible, and cut thru @ right angles in the place that appears to have the least amount of stuff. Often, just below the surface there is stuff like deadheads & large logs that you didn't or cannot see even if it looks like small wood debris on the top. Even eelgrass which looks benign sometimes can get sucked into the lower end cooling vents and can overheat your engine.

That situation - as mentioned - always gets worse during the larger "spring" tides (not just in the spring - ev. 2 weeks) verses the "neap" tides where most stuff stays on the beaches. Around large rivers that export wood due to upriver logging impacts - there are areas well known to collect debris - often where the salt water "wedge" comes into an estuary often on the left looking out to sea. The beaches on the islands and shores will reflect what wood is likely to be found floating during the spring tides in those areas, as they collect and hold the wood debris during the neap tides.

And late morning it breezes up - so travel early (1st light) - esp. if you fish offshore. When it breezes up one can come back into more sheltered areas.

 

[RiverBoy]

You’re moving to salt and the rest of us are gonna be moving to fresh if these regs keep up!

Gonna be hilarious seeing all these Commanders , DE’s and Hourstons in tiny little lakes !!

 

[wildmanyeah]

Gonna be hilarious seeing all these Commanders , DE’s and Hourstons in tiny little lakes !!

need them to stop from getting swamped from the wake boats

 

[Fishhaggis]

Great advice all! Lots of big stuff floating in GSL. Big and tricky waters in the East Arm where they filmed the tv show Survivors, but great fishing there. The charts are minimal and there are rocks popping up all over. most skegs and props here have painted a few rocks, mine included. I have a ten year old fish finder/chart and have been looking to purchase a new c-map for it, but am now thinking it’s a good opportunity to upgrade. The new stuff is confusing, so I see it as a great opportunity to check out all the marine stores down there. So far I like the Humminbird I-pilot link products that can be connected to a Minn Kota trolling motor so that you can stay at a fixed spot, or follow tracks. Need to see the stuff, kick the tires and ask around for advice.

 

[Fishhaggis]

The ice is now just off the smaller lakes and Yellowknife Bay. Good fishing along the ice edge. Big ice covering most of GSL still and when out you always need to be mindful of where that ice sheet may be blowing to. Being cut off on your way home by kilometres of ice would suck, and there are good stories of a days fishing turns into days or a week of rough camping until the ice gives you a pathway home. Won’t need to worry about that down south!

 

[ericl]

IMO some electronics brands are mainly for freshwater; as are some of the newer SONAR technologies that use a very high frequency transducer to produce detailed 3-d images. The high frequencies IMO do not penetrate deep enough to be useful beyond 120 feet or so. I put Hummingbird in the "mainly freshwater category. Lowrance used to be in that category but the parent company (Navico) acquired SIMRAD, a VERY saltwater company a few years back. Garmin seems to b in the driver seat when it comes to saltwater charts. I buy my electronics online from Gil Travis, a former USA DOD sonar spook. Gil fishes the SE USA coast & uses Garmin; years back he said Garmin's CHIRP processing is superior in saltwater with Lowrance getting the nod for fresh. This has PROBABLY changed over the last 7 years, but like I said Gil uses Garmin. IMO the F/F transducer is key. Right now the AIrmar TM 165 HW CHIRP transducer is about as good as it gets for what you NEED for our saltwater. CHIRP is different in many ways from traditional F/F technologies. It sends out multiple pings at different frequencies, remembers what it sent-out, and rejects bogus returns it didn't send out. ALL the new electronics head units have CHIRP built-in so the only cosy penalty is (in most cases) a more expensive transducer.

As or location, Barkley Sound offers more than the Sunshine Coast if year-around Salmon fishing is what you are after; weather is better on the Sunshine coast & you CAN ferry the boat over as the Georgia Strait is a long (& usually bumpy) boat ride. Right now the Robertson Creek hatchery run that comes to Port Alberni is as good as it gets in BC.