I know it isn't practical for cruisers, but I always open my hatch and leave it up while I first start my boat for the day. That also forces me to visually inspect the engine upon start u for any issues or strange noises before we head out.

If you have gas fumes you have a serious leak.... just lifting the hood won't help in the long run.

Question--

I trailer my boat to the lake each time before I use it, for about a 2 hour drive. I STILL run my blower from the entire time we get there, to getting the boat ready for launch, to the point of when we finally start the boat in the water(most of the time we walk the boat off the trailer and the family waits for me to park the car). I was told that the trailering to the lake accomplishes the same thing the blower does, so I am doing things I don't need to...is there truth to that? (Doubt I will change my habits, but curious).

In the design of a boat and it's fuel system, there are zero vents inside the engine bay. If you smell gas fumes in there bring it to a mechanic ASAP you have a fuel leak. The main function of the blower at idle/slow speeds is to give the engine proper air circulation to run correctly. Modern boats do not have the big vents like they did 20 years ago.

Huh?? The main function of running the blowers is to displace and vent out any gas vapors/fumes that have built up from a leak, spill or some other unintended introduction of fumes into the compartment. Fumes are what causes an explosion when an ignition source is introduced. The blower is designed to remove the vapors to avoid that explosion should there be a build up of fumes when an unintended ignition source becomes present. My boat has very big vents and it has 2 large blowers that directly exhaust any potential fumes. Obviously, it doesn't "fix" an ongoing leak but I'm not raising my hatch at every start up. Instead, I routinely check for leaks an problems then rely on my blowers to make sure some other reason hasn't caused vapors to accumulate.