Do You Have to Winterize ?

[Noname]

Originally Posted by Don Lucas

Spent most of yesterday winterizing the boat!

At the moment I'm kind of hating some of you

OK, Hate Me.

[mbianka]

Originally Posted by Don Lucas

Spent most of yesterday winterizing the boat!
At the moment I'm kind of hating some of you

Don:

I feel your pain or at least use to. I spent many a chilly fall evenings changing the oil and flushing the engine with antifreeze while winterizing the engine. But, that task became much easier since I went to electric propulsion. Now it's just pull the boat and winterize the fresh water system:
THE BIANKA LOG BLOG: SEASONAL SIGNALS TO WINTERIZE THE BOAT
Now it's no longer the dreaded messy task it use to be.

[delmarrey]

Sailboats are not as much a problem as open decked power boats. Especially if left in the water.

Even on the hard the two things I keep an eye on are small pumps and drains. It doesn't take much to freeze up a small pump and brake the plastic parts, even the saltwater ones.
And drains can freeze up allowing more water to back up and freeze/expand other items. Cockpit drains are known to sink boats if hoses brake or plug up.

But if your on the boat daily and do run some heat and/or motor, it's not likely you'll have a problem until it gets below the 20º's F and stays there for more then a day.

Anything that's close to the hull/deck, above the waterline, should be monitored.

Ocean water with a typical salinity of 35 parts per thousand freezes only at −1.8°C (28.9°F)

Read more: Sea Water, Freezing of - river, depth, oceans, temperature, important, salt, salinity, human Sea Water, Freezing of - river, depth, oceans, temperature, important, salt, salinity, human

[Hud3]

Down here we have to "summerize" (lay up for the hurricane season.)

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by Hud3

Down here we have to "summerize" (lay up for the hurricane season.)

Never thought I would ever say this, but.............I put you on my hate list

[Vasco]

I sail all year round. But I have to both winterize and summerize.

[David M]

No summerizing or winterizing along the west cost of the US and we sail throughout the year. Inland in the mountains here it snows.

[Hud3]

Originally Posted by Don Lucas

Never thought I would ever say this, but.............I put you on my hate list

What was that old beauty product ad...the one with Rula Lenska? "Don't hate me because I'm beautiful", she said.

Don't hate me because it's in the 80s F year-round down here, Don!

[cal40john]

Can sail all year in Puget Sound. My mooring is on a lake where the water temp can get low enough that we get ice in the shallows some years. Once the lake has cooled off and if we get a below freezing snap for a week, I'll run antifreeze through the engine and drain water out of the faucets that are high in the boat since I don't have power at the dock. Doesn't happen every year.

John

[Hydra]

I don't have to winterize and don't want to: I intend to continue sailing in winter, as in previous years.

Here too, the air temperature rarely goes under -5°C and the water stays above +4°C. Then, the only problem is with fresh water: it is cut on the pontoon when there is a risk of freezing. So, if I drained the tank, I can't fill it.

Alain

[Tingum]

Come on gang! Everyone knows the easiest way to winterize is to sail SOUTH!

[FrankZ]

I have added a poll.

[Kettlewell]

What I want to know is why I can winterize the boat in one day, yet it takes me two weeks at a minimum to get it ready to go back in the water! I don't mind the actual work of winterization, but I find it more and more depressing every year to take the boat out of the water, especially in contrast to the many great years when I was able to sail south, which is the best winterization program.

[marshmat]

Southern Ontario (Canada) here. We don't have much of a choice; either you winterize it now or you replace it in April. Our winters are milder than they used to be, but we still get a few days of -20 C or colder and we still get a great thick sheet of ice on the lake. The car ferry has a bubbler, and the tour boats are kept in the water behind a breakwall, but just about everything else has to be hauled.

The ideal solution of course is "set course one-eight-zero, engage".....

[Svsilvergirl]

Yup. Everything is full of antifreeze