Salt water or not?

[MidKnight]

I have lots of access to salt water, but very limited fresh water to play in, so the question is should salt water be avoided or not?

[jkflow]

If you have a good maintenance regimen, you can do saltwater all day long.
Flush with fresh water, mix in a little dawn detergent, this is typically done on jet skis etc.
You must do this same day you have been running. If you are getting a lot of water in the hull, you would have to flush that as well.

[plinse]

Salt water is a real problem with electronics.

...
If you are getting a lot of water in the hull, you would have to flush that as well.

In that case I would not use that boat in salt water at all.

Do the initial runs in fresh water, if the boat is well build and you don't get any water in it, then it is ready for salt water but you have more maintanance.

[boredom.is.me]

As long as you aren't flooding the hull, there is no difference between fresh and saltwater. It doesn't matter where you run, always clean the boat when you're done. That means disassembling the driveline and flushing the water cooling loop.

- Someone who grew up on an island.

[plinse]

I definately disagree there:

As long as you aren't flooding the hull, there is no difference between fresh and saltwater. It doesn't matter where you run, always clean the boat when you're done. That means disassembling the driveline and flushing the water cooling loop.

- Someone who grew up on an island.

Electronics does not like water and the statistical drop of water can cause problems.

Humidity from fresh water can dry with little effect but humidity from salt water always leaves some salt when drying and never dries completely.
This means a boat in fresh water that is quite dry on the inside is no problem and can run for years. "Quite dry" means that there are some drops of water from the drive line and the spray of these drops combined with the drives turning at high speed.

With salt water you will find salt in the boat everywhere unless it is REALLY dry on the inside and you can flush the cooling loop, you can wash the boat from the outside but you can not flush the inside including electronics.

Any issue with water in salt water condition is a complete loss of the electronics. In fresh water you can be lucky.

Regards, Eike

[Panchothedog]

I live in San Diego where we have a beautiful salt water pond. I have boats that I have run there for over 30years and they still run great. As long as you do the maintenance such as described by boredom! in the post above you will not have any problems. If you don't clean it real good then you will.It looks like Mr. plinse must have had some bad experiences, but I feel that his comments are extremely exaggerated. Honestly, I have flipped many boats, had them completely fill up with salt water and as long as you flush them and I mean everything,the entire inside of the hull right away it will be O K. Also your boat will run about 3 to 5 % faster in salt water then in fresh water.

[MidKnight]

Why do they run faster on salt water, compared to freshwater?

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[HTVboats]

Salt water is denser than fresh. You float higher and props hook up a couple percent better.
Mic