Aquatic invasive species (AIS) are taken seriously in my home territory (Montana, Idaho, Wyoming), and mandatory inspections are routine. Yellowstone National Park and the Flathead River Watershed in western Montana have especially tight requirements. YNP requires a 30-day dry time for all sailboats and some motorized boats and bans boats with "sealed internal ballast tanks". Accessible compartments including bait wells seem to be acceptable if cleaned properly and easy to see into. But if they don't like what they see, the inspectors can keep you out of the water for longer than the trip you planned. Several types of mussels and snails are current priorities.
I'm hoping to build a (non-sailing) rowcruiser soonish, with Yellowstone and Flathead Lakes and lower gradient sections of the Yellowstone, Snake, and Missouri Rivers as local destinations. I am thinking about details that might make inspections and boat cleaning easier or harder. It seems like the combination of small access ports, quarter knees, and partial bulkheads with penetrations might complicate both inspection and cleaning due to the corners and crannies that are hard to reach and to see, and these are a type of boat inspectors won't see often. I'd appreciate any relevant experience or suggestions. Maybe it's a non-issue and I'm overthinking it.
I don't think there are any fully sealed, inaccessible compartments. Is that correct? Any other red or yellow flags for an inspector?
