Aluminum Boat in Saltwater

Looking to buy a new boat. The boat will be 14'-16' jon boat. Fish by myself. I've owned one aluminum boat and 4 fiberglass boats in my life. Most of my fishing will be in freshwater lakes with 10 HP restriction. I do live very close to saltwater and from time to time I'll go saltwater. My question is should I worry about the saltwater on a aluminum boat ? Probably be (90-95% freshwater, 5-10% saltwater. Freshwater just bring the boat home and park it. Saltwater i'll spray it with a hose and call it something.Thanks for your help.

Nope. There are lots of multimillion dollar aluminum yatchs circling the globe, much less the thousands of smaller aluminum boats.

The only thing I would do is flush the motor after salt water use

No problem at all, Like Sinkermaker said flush out the motor, after every salt water use!

Flush the motor and if you wire it or buy one with wiring in it, make sure it is marine rated. It has to be tinned otherwise with saltwater exposure you will have electrical problems in no time flat with regular copper stranded. That includes the trailer.

I heard if it's a riveted aluminum boat you should not put it in salt. Any truth to that guys?

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Originally Posted by Slab

I heard if it's a riveted aluminum boat you should not put it in salt. Any truth to that guys?

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Excellent question, I haven't heard that. Would love to know that.

I was a aircraft mechanic in the Navy...I was in a P3 squadron...our mission was anti submarine patrol....we flew low over the ocean....salt was in the air......The vanes and stators in the turbo prop jet engines had to be checked regularly for corrosion caused by salt...The air frame and fuselodge skin was all aluminum and the skin was rivited on with thousands of aluminum rivits...the air craft was painted...but corrosion from salt around all those rivits kept the aviation metal smiths constantly busy sanding, replaceing rivits, and touch up painting.

Good to know next time I go fishing with an aluminum turbo prop riveted airplane. rotfl

J/K - Great info. Salt is a corrosive, bad on just about everything. I'm also sure planes have a much tighter tolerance so I guess we still need to know if a riveted boat gonna sink! lol

Thank you for your service.

Aluminum forms its own impenetrable protective oxide layer as soon as it is exposed preventing further corrosion. I suspect the constant dynamic motion between the rivets and the hull grinding off this oxide layer between the two actually acts as a sort of fast acting corrosion. Layer turns to oxide, gets ground off, has to form another layer of oxide, gets ground off, rinse and repeat ad infinitum.

I know my ole G3 1448 riveted john sure saw its share of saltwater. Never saw any signs of trouble at all.

electrolysis is the thing that eats them. cleaning the boat and flushing the motor after use helps. look for signs of corrosion clean and paint spots, any bear metal will cause trouble.

Don't forget your boat trailer. It will need a good cleaning after a dip in the salt water. It can be bad on tube type frames that water can enter. Even galvanized dipped ones can get eat up over time. I know this from experience , my son had my previous aluminum boat in FL for about a year and half. The boat held up well. The trailer had some corrosion on inside of tubes.

I don't know the answer, especially since the great lakes where I fish with my boat is unsalted and shark free.....but them boys along the Atlantic all have fiberglass boats for a reason I would think. :scratchhead:dono

I fish the brackish marshes of South LA regular and have both Aluminum Crappie boat and Fiberglass Center Console that I use. Electrical connection corrosion will be your problem. The salt in the air affects them. My Center Console is designed with electrical connections sealed and has no problems. Aluminum boat has open spade connections and is always trouble. Keep you a can of contact cleaner!!


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I bought a used boat from NY. It had some salt water time, but mostly fresh water. It's a Starcraft, hundreds of rivets.
About half the boat's rivets had corrosion, as did that same part of the hull. The former owner said he always washed, and never left it overnight in salt water.
I was able to sand /water blast, and seal all the rivets and bottom. Expect it to last many years.
I was told that had the former owner painted / sealed the entire boat, no corrosion would have happened.
Unpainted, in sealed aluminum begins to corrode immediately when in salt water, I was told, by a retired marina owner from Maryland.

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Originally Posted by Lane47

I bought a used boat from NY. It had some salt water time, but mostly fresh water. It's a Starcraft, hundreds of rivets.
About half the boat's rivets had corrosion, as did that same part of the hull. The former owner said he always washed, and never left it overnight in salt water.
I was able to sand /water blast, and seal all the rivets and bottom. Expect it to last many years.
I was told that had the former owner painted / sealed the entire boat, no corrosion would have happened.
Unpainted, in sealed aluminum begins to corrode immediately when in salt water, I was told, by a retired marina owner from Maryland.

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Exactly what i've experienced in my only occasional SW usage= GALVANIC CORROSION. My highly-polished SS hatch-hinges(8) are aluminum-rivet attached. The softer metal(aluminum) rivets are being attacked due to their incompatible metal chemistry. ALL rivets need to be drilled out and refit with SS rivets. Contacted manufacturer about 3 months ago and got an "I'll discuss with the Owner" response...still waiting,:dono but still having a BLAST:fingerdance w/my newest(last),lol rig!

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Originally Posted by sinkermaker

The only thing I would do is flush the motor after salt water use

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Cheap steel trailers might help to flush salt out of them . Seen them rust into after being in salt water