Boat maintenance costs, tips, techniques to care for your boat

Boat maintenance costs are small compared to the cost of repairing a boat that has been neglected.

Like most people maintenance is not my favorite thing to do, and yes, I sometimes let maintenance details go for too long, and end up dealing with more of mess than I would have if I had taken the proper steps earlier.

Take last fall for instance,

I was busy with too many projects, it had been raining for weeks, and I didn't put the boat cover on, and I didn't deal with the boat for a number of weeks.

This is what I ended up with.

Luckily, the only real issue was what was growing on the supplies in the boat trunk.

Woops.

Everything inside the boat storage trunk was covered with a fine white fungus, and mildew had started to take hold.

Luckily, I caught it before the mildew was too severe, and it could be washed out.

I used my favorite cleaner, TKO, which is an orange peel based cleaner. It works great on so many things I thought I would try it.

I scrubbed all the gear in a strong solution of TKO and everything came out clean.

I share this example because had I let it go any longer I would have been replacing a bunch of mildewed gear.

Boat maintenance is best done sooner than later!

What supplies do I use for boat cleaning? There are many different cleaners that are available specifically for inflatable boats. A simple solution of soap and water works the best for regular cleaning, but the stubborn stains may need something more.

How do I clean my boat? During the boating season I simply wash with water. If I am in salt water I simply sponge the boat with salt water. I try to clean out sand and fishing slime with a sponge and water. When packing it up I rinse off the worst of the slime with salt water.

Once I am back in fresh water, I rinse everything down to remove the salt water.

The only real cleaning I give the boat is in the fall before I store it for the winter. This is when it gets a good soap and water scrub down, stubborn stains get washed off, and it gets coated with a suitable protectant.

Yes, that is it..... once a year I scrub the whole boat..... so my boat maintenance costs are very minimal. The cleaner I use and protectant bottle will last for a number of years before I use them up.

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