Home Forums Fishing Saltwater Boat for saltwater and freshwater use

It comes down to your budget, and don't forget the 80/20 rule, select the boat that is best for 80% of your use, not 20% of your use. When you say freshwater use I presume that means lakes, not rivers. A skinny water river boat is not a good choice for the salt, neither is a saltwater boat a good choice for the shallow rivers.

A 20' aluminum skiff with a 50-90 horse outboard and either center console or tiller steer is going to an incredibly versatile boat for fresh and saltwater without completely killing ones budget.



Beyond that creature comforts are nice but add up quickly. I'm a glutton for punishment so decided to build my own boat.

Hard to beat a Yamaha.

.. or a Honda outboard.

After 13 years, I finally have my 90 Honda quite well taken apart. For over 20 years I have put my boat in the water each spring and taken it out 4-5 months later. It stays in the water (ocean) all season. So, that Honda motor has over 4-5 years worth of soak time in the salt. The boat swamped several years ago which put the motor in water lapping the lower edges of the engine cover. Unbeknownst to me, a cup or two of water found its way into a mid-section area where the flywheel resides and was trapped there. That water has finally started causing a few problems including corroding the flywheel and ruin a couple of seals. In taking this motor apart I have had no problems with frozen or broken bolts. Everything has come apart easily, at least all have except for the six bolts holding the flywheel to the crankshaft. There was so much corrosion on the flywheel and bolts that I could not be sure whether the heads were six point or twelve. They looked impossible and my initial thought was to weld new nuts to the bolt heads so that I would have something by which to grip them. After talking to a dealer mechanic however and hearing those bolts generally need the encouragement of a stout impact wrench, I decide that the rusty condition would probably make that situation even worse. So I ground one head off in the hope that perhaps I’d be able to tell how much of a challenge I was up against. When the head became thin, the spinning grinder simply turned the bolt out, the shank and threads being absolutely pristine. So I ground another. Same deal. And the rest followed in the same way.

I am absolutely impressed with the materials and design effort that Honda puts into their motors. Power-wise, they might be a bit more conservative than some others, but they get good fuel efficiency, and the machines are very well constructed. That isn’t said to take anything away from Yamaha. They are the more popular motor in these parts, but there are dealers that sell both. They each have their pros and cons, but Honda certainly builds a good marine product as well.

FWIW, up to this point, I’ve replaced a few sets of plugs (because you’re supposed to), I replace the fuel filter every couple of years (though I have a better primary filter mounted on the boat), I change the oil (and oil filter; I use Fram filters for the Civic) once a year or every 100 hours as specified, I replace props once in awhile, I bent a prop shaft and had to have the lower unit rebuilt/ shaft straightened, and I had to change the starter which was ruined due to the trapped moisture in the midsection. IOW, I have not had to do anything other than maintain for wear and tear and deal with problems related to my own blunders. This motor owes me nothing but the power head seems to run like new yet so I’m planning to repair and keep on running it for a bit longer.