Nautique in salt water

[Mazzy11]

Am considering buying an older (1995 and older) Nautique to play around in our bays and lagoons...been too long since I've ridden a ski, and now that the Lil' Kiddies are getting old enough to play on the water, I'd like to have a good, solid boat for them to learn on. We've got plenty of "inboard" motor boats around here, but mostly fishing boats. Is a Nautique any different than another boat that simply needs flushing after a run in the saltwater? I just do not know if their "innards" accommodate this sort of thing...any help is greatly appreciated for this Newbie. Thanks, from Orange Beach, AL.

[DanielC]

Right off the top I have not had any experience running a Nautique in Salt Water.

I do know you can get closed cooling systems on current Nautiques, in fact the ZR-6 motor comes stock with it.
I believe it is possible to purchase a closed cooling system "kit" from PCM, and retrofit it to a fresh water cooled boat.

I would not think there is much of a difference in flushing out an engine in a fishing boat, compared to a ski boat. An engine is an engine.

If you are "religious" about flushing the engine after every time it is in salt water, I think you could pretty much stop any damage from the salt water. It would be a good idea to flush out the bilge, and you are going to have to spend more time keeping the gelcoat looking nice, but it can be done.

Having said all that, teaching your children to ski, and spending time with them, and their friends is well worth the extra time and effort to maintain a boat used in salt water. Time spent with your kids is priceless. A Ski Nautique is much less.

[SkiTower]

Also, salt water tends to be a major turn off for selling Nautiques. Therefore, if you're going to put one in salt water, maybe you can get a great deal on a used one that has already seen salt water that the seller is struggling with.

One other thing to note: I'd try to polish up the exposed metal on a regular basis. Some of the major tell-tell signs a boat has been in salt water is not the condition of the engine but the corrosion on screws and things. Not sure how, but might be worth investigating.

[captainbrad1]

spray your engine down with a residual corrosion inhibitor and flush your engine thoroughly after every use and saltwater will not be a problem. The only people who
are concerned about a boat that was used in saltwater are those that don't live on the briny.

[toddrswenson]

What would you brand of spray would you recommend?

[ers906]

By buddies who run boats in the ocean use Salt-away for cleaning out their engines after use in the salt water

[mhouston44]

Boeshield T9 works great, here's a link:

http://boeshield.com/

[shag]

I lived and ski'd on saltwater for years with an 89 Ski Nautique. What i can tell you is that I was almost anal on cleaning after every use, including the trailer - and corrosion still seemed to find its way to areas.... You will defineatly get a lower resale value, even though I have seen salt water boats that were in better shape then fresh - people just tend to discount a boat if they hear it is a salt water boat.
You will at the very least, want a galvanized trailer, and even they rust out. All I can say is flush flush flush.
The boeshield works well, and I used it to coat my engine and tranny. WD 40 will work, but not as good.

[captainbrad1]

Boeshield is good but Mercury outboards makes a residual corrosion guard that works better in my opinion and does'nt seem as messy. I think it's simply called "corrosion guard".