Prepare Your Boat For Winter
I knew this day would come but I was holding off for as long as I could. I took the boat out of the water today to prepare it for the winter. There isn’t a whole do be done with regards to the engine. There are no carburetors to fog or gas lines to drain on my engine (200hp Mercury EFI Saltwater series). I’ll remove the spark plugs and fog each cylinder and that is about it. The boat itself on the other hand is going to require a bit more effort. I will need to have a septic company pump out the system since the marina pump out closed for the season already. Once empty I’ll be adding some environmentally friendly anti-freeze to the system just to be safe. I’ll also need to completely drain the fresh water holding tank and of course I will not add any anti-freeze here. Everything that can be removed from and stored indoors for the winter will be. The entire hull will be power washed and everything above the bottom paint will be cleaned and waxed. All metal surfaces need to be cleaned and waxed as well and all snaps will need to be lubricated. Once all the heavy cleaning is done I will frame a support from the hardtop to the bow rail to support the shrink wrap and create the proper slope for runoff rain and snow. The last thing to go indoors will be the batteries. I will trickle charge them over the winter indoors. Once the batteries are indoors it’s time for the shrink wrap. Of course even when it has been wrapped the work doesn’t end. I’ll need to cut an access door into the wrap because there are lots of small repairs to deal with while it is out of the water. I’ll be replacing 2 pumps (livewell pump, and a fishwell pump). I also need to replace a few wires that are showing signs of corrosion and I’m sure I’ll discover a few other things along the way. This season’s ocean adventures have come to an end but I was a lot of fun. I’m already looking forward to April (when the boat returns to the water).