Smaller boats can easily be pulled out of the water on trailers and cleaned, but larger boats are expensive to haul out. Specially formulated bottom paint, with abaltive toxins and algacides can help fight the battle. These paints usually expire within a year and a half to two years in these waters but long before they expire, the mud deposits build up and the metals (which can't use the same type of paint) begin to foul. In the summer, it is highly recommended that a boat have its hull and running gear cleaned at least once per month. It's never cool to load up your wife and kids (much less out of town guests), cast off and find you can't do more than five knots at full RPM.

Electrolysis is a destructive process that occurs to metals exposed to electric currents passing through saltwater. It can be exaserbated by wiring problems within your boat or other boats within your marina. To combat this nepharious process, less noble metals are sacrificed in stead of rudders, shafts, trim tabs and the like. The sacrificial metal of choice is zinc. Zinc is attached as collars to shafts, as round discs to rudders and trim tabs, and as large bars that provide grounding to the electrical system in the boat. Zincs are normally installed during haul outs, but fail to last as long as the paint, requiring expensive haulout or the work of a good diver. You should measure and record the size and type of the zincs your vessel requires. The shaft size of an inboard engine can be measured inside the vessel.