Aluminum Pipework Protection & Maintenance

A GLEAMING TUNA TOWER, HALF-TOWER OR T-TOP can make any vessel look like a first-class angling platform. On the contrary, aluminum that has been poorly maintained gives the appearance that your vessel just came out of Cannery Row Creek. The following are a few tips and tricks on how to keep new towers and T-Tops looking that way, as well as extending the useful lifespan of older pipework.

- Captain John N. Raguso

No matter how thick or burly the aluminum framework is on your vessel, it is protected by a very thin anodic coat. According to the Aluminum Anodizers Council website, “Anodizing is an electrochemical process that is accomplished by immersing aluminum into an acid electrolyte bath and passing an electric current through the medium.”

Anodizing effectively changes the coating thickness of the natural oxide layer on the surface of aluminum pipework. The benefits include durability, color stability, ease of maintenance, aesthetics and relatively low cost. And since anodization is a by-product of a naturally occurring oxide process, it is not hazardous and produces no harmful or dangerous byproducts. Now that the science lesson is out of the way, how does this impact you in the real world?

Since I’ve owned a half-dozen Grady-White boats over my four decades of small boat charter fishing services, I contacted the good folks from Winterville Machine Works who have been topping those Grady’s with their good looking and functional aluminum towers from the get-go. Accordingly, I reached out to WMW President John Carroll.