Without a doubt, some parts of a watercraft are much better known than others are.  While even non-boaters have probably heard of propellers, outboard motors, and rudders, some boating enthusiasts may not have heard of zinc anodes, also known as boat zincs.

What are Boat Zincs?

Boat zincs come in a variety of shapes such as plates, disks, and cylinders, but what they all have in common is a surface area that allows the metal of zinc to help prevent galvanic corrosion on other parts of your boat. Zinc anodes work by giving up their own electrons so that other metals located nearby will not give up theirs.  Boat zincs in this way can help to prevent corrosion of boat parts such as stern drives, steel shafts, rudders, fittings, and above all, propellers themselves.

Boat zincs such as plate zincs, nut zincs, and shaft zincs are also called “sacrificial anodes” or “sacrificial zincs” because they will corrode as they keep other metals from doing the same.  Boating enthusiasts need to keep careful track of their zincs because once they have decayed a great deal, they will no longer be able to prevent corrosion effectively.  At this point, boat zincs need to be replaced so that propellers and other metal pieces have continued protection.

Boaters should also be diligent to check for corrosion on their propellers because such corrosion can mean that more zinc surface area is needed to protect it fully.  As a general rule of thumb, boaters need to have 1/100^th as much zinc surface area as the area being protected, but some situations will require additional zinc anodes.

Tags: boat zincs

This entry was posted on January 31, 2012 at 4:35 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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