GREAT READER TIP

Q: Hi Mick. I live very close to salt water, and despite keeping my tools in a bag inside the garage, they rust. This time I put them in a FoodSaver bag and vacuum-sealed it. Six months have gone by and no rust is apparent!

Jim Cohen Key Largo, Florida

A: Thanks for the tip, Jim. We know what you mean about basically being able to watch tools rust in salty air. Remove the oxygen, and corrosion is thwarted. (A thin coat of wiped-on oil works for tools, like filter wrenches, that are needed with some regularity.) I trailer the boat to the ramp each time I go boating. My question is: When flushing the outboard after a day on salt water, does the outboard need to be flushed immediately after pulling the boat out of the water? Sometimes I get back when it’s dark. Is it harmful to flush the next morning or sometime during the next day?

Also, on the outboard there is a hose connection that allows for flushing without running the outboard. Which is the most effective way of flushing the outboard: through this connection or with the outboard running on the muffs? Or would they both be the same? Thank you. Robert Donnelly

Via email

A: Your most effective time to flush will be as soon after you finish boating for the day as possible. With time, water evaporates, leaving harderto-flush salt crystals behind. There is no way to quantify this crystallization except to say that the longer after boating you begin flushing, the longer you should flush for. At a minimum, flush until you get the strongest discharge from the telltale (aka “pee stream”). The most thorough flush is using the muffs and flushing until the outboard comes up to temperature so that the thermostats open up. Of course, if one keeps a boat docked in salt water, this is not feasible.

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This is most absorbent mop I’ve used. There are two tasks specific to my boat for which Star brite’s Reggae Mop proves ideally suited. It makes soaking up the last bit of water, that which the macerator pump cannot get, a job I can do using a mop handle and while standing up instead of lying on the cockpit and reaching down with a rag or sponge. Second, the shoreline near my dock is heavily treed. In the spring, my boat turns green with a thick coating of pollen. Used dry, the Reggae Mop works great as a dust collector, and though I could use the hose for the task, dusting allows me to depollen and then go boating without having to dry the leaning post or suffer drips from the hardtop. Did I mention its super-soft, super-absorbent, nonscratching fronds are great for quickly soaking up dew or drying off the boat after washing?

The Reggae Mop fits Star brite Extend-ABrush (boatingmag .com/we-test-starbrite-extend-brush) handles utilizing a push-button connector built into the mop. If you don’t have a Star brite pole, an adapter ($9.29) is available to use the Reggae Mop with poles that have the push button. $29; walmart

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