How Are the Tropics "Hard on Boats"?

[AKA-None]

A bit of counter sink for bolt holes allows a sealant somewhere to go

[MVDarlin]

My1982 Ocean Alexander has been in the Sea of Cortez for over 10 years. It is hauled out in May and refloated in November, summers are hot and many plastic items will melt in the cabin, all elastic in clothing will become limp, anything attached with foam tape will fall off. Best to leave a fan on to help move the air around. Varnish will require annual maintenance. I cover my teak rails and other exposed wood. Be sure to close off all through hulls with sponge pieces or other material or insects will nest in the openings. I cover my cabin windows with canvas or white UV screens. FLA batteries will fail from loss of acid unless they are serviced during the haul out. AGM batteries may also fail, swell and crack. And once in the water anticipate you will need to have your hull cleaned by a diver once a month.

[mikereed100]

For the OP,
We have been commuter cruising for the past 13 years and have left the boat for extended periods of time in the tropics as well as the higher latitudes. In the SOC the issues will be heat and hurricanes mostly. The only place to store your boat out of hurricane danger is Puerto Penasco but heat and dust is a real issue there. We returned after the summer to find that the foam in parts of our regrigerator had off-gassed and delaminated the fiberglass skin. The wind blows fiercely at times, kicking up a lot of dust. Seal the boat up well and plan on doing a lot of deep cleaning outside on your return. If I were to leave my boat in PP again I would leave an air conditioner running at it's lowest setting as we have done previously in the tropics. This should minimize heat damage inside the boat. Wherever you leave the boat, remove everything you can from the outside and store it inside, including sails, dodgers and all running rigging. Cover winches and roller furlers, windlass etc. San Carlos and Guaymas are popular places to leave the boat but run the risk of hurricane damage. A few years ago several boats were knocked over at San Carlos when a hurricane passed close by. If you choose to store there be sure your insurance premiums are up to date.

[thudbranch]

Originally Posted by SomeGuyInaShirt

So I'm almost in Mexico on the Pacific coast and I'm headed into the Sea of Cortez planning my next move.

I was thinking of leaving the boat ashore (in Mexico) for a year to 18 months to work and possibly do a few months of bicycle touring in Europe but I remember all the stern warnings about how the tropical sun is "hard on boats" with no further explanation as to how.

What will I come back to after 12-18 months? Should I avoid doing my brightwork and repainting my nonskid as planned? I bought some light sand coloured nonskid in the spring but had to launch before I had time to apply it to the deck. If I paint it before I leave for work will it be trashed when I return? Is the integrity of my fiberglass going to be affected?

ANOTHER TEMPARATURE EFFECT: Corrosion rates and chemical process rates increase with increasing temperature. I have seen reports that an increase of just 10 deg F increases corrosion rates in stainless or iron by 2 to 2.5 times! I had a experienced rigger tell me that standing stainless rigging might last only 5 years in Sea of Cortes and the same set up last 20 years in Puget Sound! The rigging corrosion rate is due to the synergistic combination of both electrical chemical and stress at once. Just Google corrosion vs temperature...

[Chotu]

One more for the pile. Lol

don’t forget mold. When you close that boat up and leave it can become a haven for mold.

[JPA Cate]

Yes, mold can be the price for closing it up! However, you noticed, I bet, that someone leaves their air con on the whole time. Places we've left the boat charge you separately for the electricity you use--at about twice the local residential rate!

Ann

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by Chotu

One more for the pile. Lol

don’t forget mold. When you close that boat up and leave it can become a haven for mold.

Mould is - in my experience - an easy fix. We used to get mould on vinyl headlining around the galley area. We now wipe down that area and elsewhere with a cloth soaked in a eucalyptus oil solution. Any other disinfectant would probably be as good.
We also leave all lockers open.

After the unanticipated 2 years plus layup in Ecuador we only had two issues. Pumps, we had to change impellers on the shower sump pumps but that I feel was down to lack of use rather than heat. The metal internals in the electric bilge pump had devoured themselves.
Other issue involved plastics esp saucepan handles which remain sticky to the touch.

Oh, and not all tropical locations are humid. Desiccation is more of a problem in Ecuador than humidity.

[Marathon1150]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

Other issue involved plastics esp saucepan handles which remain sticky to the touch.

Oh, and not all tropical locations are humid. Desiccation is more of a problem in Ecuador than humidity.

Regarding plastic/rubber developing a very annoying sticky coating, this was a major issue after 2+ years in Tahiti during the pandemic. Some rubberized plastic turned into faux alligator hide. Goo be gone will fix many, but not all, of these items.

La Paz enjoys a very warm/hot dry fall and spring, along with a hot and humid summer. The best of both worlds. The good news is that the Sea of Cortez makes it very worthwhile being there.

[grantmc]

Originally Posted by Marathon1150

We had our boat in La Paz for 10 years and then Tahiti for 3. ...

Tahiti was worse. At least in part because the boat was there during the pandemic and we could not get to it. We had someone open it up once every two weeks, start the engine, pump the head and check the bilge. Nonetheless, anything made out of rubber or plastic inside the boat was no longer useful or needed a lot of work to get it working again. Cans rusted and leaked, plastic bottles fractured and lost their contents (our boat watcher wondered what the weird green liquid in the bilge was - I discovered that it was coolant that had leaked from a cracked plastic jug. Fortunately the jug of motor oil next to it, developed its crack at the top and not at the bottom like the coolant). You can read the whole sad story here:

https://currents.bluewatercruising.o...ting-horizons/
...

This is a great post from Marathon and describes well the hassles of leaving a boat in the tropics. A couple of points to add (my boat is in Fiji):
- during the wet (hot) season black mould is a huge hassle. It coats everything exposed to weather. Especially rope and canvas work. It smells awful and the only way I've found to clean it off is with a power washer.
- thieves are an ever present hassle. As well as stealing your stuff they also cause damage and sometimes leave hatches open for rain to get in.

And you know there's another factor you need to consider. When you're away from your boat you worry about it. And it's frustrating because there's nothing you can do remotely.

When a cyclone is forecast, the stress you feel is horrendous, and typically during the event proper phones and power go down. So you can't even make contact with whoever is supposedly looking after your boat. Needless to say their priorities will be their own families and home plus helping neighbours etc. So they might not be able to get to your boat for a few days.

This has never happened to me (thankfully), but in most cyclones several boats come off their moorings and so their absentee owners have the problem of organsing their retrieval and repair, perhaps even floating if they've sunk. Big hassle to do over the phone.

[chrisr]

we live aboard in FP and occasionally leave the boat for a few months eg we're flying to aussie to see family for christmas

a short break like this is ok, however it always amuses us to hear about folk who leave their boats abandoned for years (a BIG problem here) and then wonder why things have deteriorated

at least we don't have grant's thieves or cyclones, but folks : everything on your boat will deteriorate - more so in the tropics due to the heat and humidity - but really doesn't matter where you are. use it or lose it is the motto. the less you use a boat the more it deteriorates

i know a lot of this was down to covid, but we're still seeing it here. if you're not using the boat for heaven sake sell it...after a few years you can't give it away !

btw, we find tht using vinegar with a few drops of clove oil is the cure for mold

cheers,

[JPA Cate]

Actually, chrisr, that's brilliant. The clove oil penetrates the wee little holes in the gelcoat and paint, and kills the spores, and the mold doesn't like the vinegar. Do you use double strength vinegar for this, or regular white vinegar?

Ann

[chrisr]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

Actually, chrisr, that's brilliant. The clove oil penetrates the wee little holes in the gelcoat and paint, and kills the spores, and the mold doesn't like the vinegar. Do you use double strength vinegar for this, or regular white vinegar?

Ann

sometimes debbie takes my 14% vinegar, but generally she uses the normal 10% stuff

works a treat, and leaves a nice scent too !

fyi i use the 14% stuff to clean the bottom of the dink, which lives in the water 24/7 and after a couple of months is starting to get a bit manky

lift it out, spray with strong vinegar, leave over night and then back in water next day, and clean again for another couple of months

cheers,