Boat Maintanence......a few tips.

Hey there. Just returned from a great weekend of boating, 3 rivers in 3 days.......good mix of II, III+ and a IV for good measure. My partner in crime Kyle and I put down some serious miles and along the way, he picked up a new LiquidLogic Stomper. At the Chatooga we picked up a friend and ended up having (3) boats on his car. Mine being the longest was on the bottom, his Stomper nestled on top and Kristen's Solo on the side. After (3) days of hoping around GA, SC and NC, I noticed that my boat's (LLogic XP10) hull was starting to deform under the weight of the Stomper and the tension of the stay straps. Needless to say I was initially concerned but realized that an easy fix was at hand. First, I put up the boat on my wall mounted J cradles over night and let nature take its course (plastic mold memory). By the next morning, most of the deformity had left the hull and there were just some minor flat spots. What I did to address these was to put the boat cockpit side up on (2) saw horses. Then I filled the cockpit with water........I also made sure that boat was in the sun. The evenly disbursed weight of the water couple with the heat provided by the sun worked out the remaining flat spots quite nicely........so there is a quick blog on fixing hull deformity. There is plenty on the interwebz about using bricks, heat guns, blow dryers and the like. Mine fortunately was a simpler approach.

Another thing.....don't forget to wash your nappy ass boat. There is nothing sexy about a dirty, stinky boat, unless dirty and stinky is yo' thang....Maybe it's just me but I like having my ride clean and ready to go for the next adventure. I just clean her down with car soap in and out.....works well to get rid of the river funk. Then I take a sanding block (220 fine grit) and knock down all of the high spots from gouges......yeah I am anal about these things but its my boat and it was not cheap. Finally before putting it up, I check all the rigging / outfitting making note of wear. No need for surprises when you least need them......cheers!