Moved to a new planet!!!!

[lounge lizard]

Hi gang, its been awhile. Frank here, I recently moved from Colorado to Venice Florida on the gulf coast. Holy shit what a change!!!!! The poor lizard had never seen saltwater in its 18 years!! Now Im freaking out wiping and spraying everything down after every time out.
I have a question: Anyone in this climate area have recommendations on a good cover? My current one is about shot. I havent found much, really. I had to do the whole disinfect and wipe down bad mildew/mold after it sat a month or so with the cover on. Now I run a small fan in there full time. My current cover has a couple of vents, but the new ones I see dont, and I need a waterproof one. Im not sure a metal canopy would offer much protection in this area with the rains and wind. I think I found out pretty quick the lizard is an intercoastal vessel vs a sea vessel,,

[ron nh]

When I introduced the lizard to cold salt water it shrank Immediately.

[Jake_Daddy]

I'm sure someone will chime in with some better info than me but being from Florida I never realized how tough the climate is here until I was just fortunate enough to do some boating in eastern Minnesota this summer. I couldn't get over how well the boats up there hold up. The boat we had the pleasure of using, a relatives, was a 2000 Lowe and it was absolutely beautiful and all original. I don,t know the total hours as the meter wasn't working but it had been repowered at least once in its life. I would chalk a lot of that up to fresh water, way less intense sun, and a much lower boating season but I just couldn't get over it and we saw many quality older boats up there that looked great!

You can keep boats looking good in Florida but you have to really keep up a strict cleaning/maintenance schedule and you still wont get the longevity, in years, as you would up north but the flip side is you will get to use your boat all year long! For us July, August, and September is the least we use our boat due to the heat but we still get out at least one or two weekends a month but four months either side of that and we are out almost every weekend.

Your are experiencing one of the conundrum's that a lot of boaters in Florida face, and RV guys too, protection from the sun via covers also aids in the mold/mildew growth! Stuff like damp rid works but you would need to change it out a lot due to the humidity here, I know our neighbor with a small cuddy runs a fan in his all the time but he doesn't take the boat out often. When we used to keep ours on the trailer we would clean and spray everything down and give it a day in the sun to completely dry before we covered it, which is a PITA in FL because it rains so often! I would also try and lift the seats a bit to get some air under there. If we covered it moist and couldn't go out for 3 weeks or more it could get nasty in there. The first summer we had the boat it came with a cheap cover that didn't look old or faded but the first summer in full sun and afternoon thunderstorms it turned to paper and tore up quickly. Now we are fortunate enough to keep it on a covered boat lift so I skip the cover and raise the boat up as high as I can, this keeps the sun to at least a minimum and it stays dry now.

If I were you keep it covered (you will get what you pay for here), keep it dry and use it a lot, and keep it hosed down with some 303! Good luck, and if you want your aluminum to stay pretty that's another battle, and one that I gave up on with my last boat!

[lounge lizard]

Ron,,if this lizard shrunk it might be a good thing,,,less to maintain! But you said cold salt water,,,WTF is that!!?? Im used to 60 degree water,,,I think the gulf is mid 80`s now,,,

Thanks Jake! Its tough watching stuff rust,,,,