Easy Boat Maintenance Tips

There's an old saying about boats: they are big holes in the water that you pour your money into. This maxim crystallizes what many boat owners know all too well (or eventually find out). Owning a boat can very expensive.

Here are some easy tips you can use to help keep your boat maintenance costs down:

Scrub

Although many boat owners rinse their boat after a day on the water, some forget the need to scrub everything down. Scrubbing down your boat's deck, hull, and rails regularly prevents slime, gunk, sand, dirt, and barnacles from delaying the normal drying process.  Using a stiff deck-brush on the hull will do the trick. You can also experiment with these ideas:

• Add a squirt of dish soap to your suds. Dish soap has degreasing agents that will cut through oil, which often acts like a magnet for dirt, sand, and slime.
• Raising your hull, even by a few inches, will allow water to drain more efficiently. You can raise your hull by placing a cinderblock under boat trailer's front wheel. If possible, however, parking your boat on a slight incline is the easiest way to get your front-end higher.

Power Wash

When it comes to dislodging things from tight spaces there isn't a much more efficient way to get the job done than with a power washer. Power washing the corners and crevices on and under your boat can dislodge accumulated deposits of anything that should be there. This is particularly important around your engine mount and bilge plug.

Neutralize

Whether you boat is in salt, brackish, or fresh water, the natural acidity level found in most water can corrode your boat's many surfaces. Even when water evaporates deposits of acidity can remain and wreak havoc on your boat. You can prevent these acidic traces from forming by neutralizing these acids.

The most cost-effective solution for neutralizing water is a simple hydrogen peroxide solution. Simply mix one gallon of warm water with one cup of 3% hydrogen peroxide. Once the solution is mixed, funnel the mixture into a spray bottle with a misting sprayer. Last, spray-mist every surface of your boat. When you've sprayed your boat down, use a towel to dry the surfaces off.

Owning a boat gives you the freedom to live a different lifestyle. These tips can help you keep your maintenance costs down so that you can stress less about your boat and focus more on having fun with it. To learn more, contact a company like Waterway Boat Lift Covers.