By Andrew Spaulding
Michael wrote a comparatively comprehensive article last
week on winterizing tips, suggestions, and best practices. In covering
sailboats he wrote about items that also apply to powerboats such as batteries,
seacocks, and fuel treatments. I’m going to cover additional items and add notes
to last week’s list. Please let me know if you have any questions. My email is andrew@crowleys.com.
Stern(out)drives – Stern drives work great until they don’t.
Most people forget all about their sterndrives until something goes wrong,
usually involving a lost weekend or two in the summer. The first thing to do is
visually inspect the drive soon after it comes out of the water. You want to
look for signs of corrosion, damaged wires and hoses, propeller dings, and any
scrapes on the drive. When you change the oil, inspect the initial oil level
and check the oil for signs of water. Inspect the drive and shift bellows for
cracking or dry rot.
Stuffing box – On the way to the boat yard inspect the
stuffing boxes for excessive leaking. If there isn’t any more adjustment, it is
time for a re-pack. Underway a drip every 10-15 (ish) seconds is ok. Without
the engine running, there should be a drip every 30-60 seconds. The trick is
that you want to make sure that the packing gland stays cool to the touch. If
it gets hot there isn’t enough water flow. Warm is ok, but not hot.
Engine belts and hoses –While you are pumping the engine
full of winterizing fluid, take the time to inspect your engine belts for glazing
or cracking. Also, check the belt tension and the pulley alignment. Excessive
belt dust on the engine is a great indicator of a problem. At the same time,
check your hoses and hose clamps. Purchase the correct size nut driver (looks
like a screwdriver but with an end for tightening nuts) for your hose clamps
and give each one a quick twist.
Windshield wiper fluid – Don’t forget this one! I’ve seen 10
year marine industry veterans forget to winterize the windshield washer fluid.
The blue stuff you purchase at the convenience store mid-summer might not have
freeze protection.
Engine panel instruments – The winter is a great time to
send out individual gauges for repair. We “have a guy” that fixes all sorts of gauges,
so if yours aren’t working take them out and have the store send them for
repair.
Propellers – Fuel isn’t getting any cheaper and having your
propellers tuned is a great way to maximize your fuel savings. The prop shop
hates to get propellers in March. They’d much rather have work to do in
December.
Batteries – Make sure they are fully charged, then
disconnect the battery cables, and then clean the battery terminals and battery
cable terminals. Most boats have a current draw from something all the time.
For example, if you have a CO monitor, it is likely wired direct to the
batteries and uses current to test the air.
Bilge blower system – Non-working bilge blowers leave the
boat in a dangerous condition. When spring rolls around and you want to jet to
the harbor, their repair is often deferred. If you have blower screens and/or
filters now is the time to clean them up.
Safety gear - Check fire boys, fire extinguishers for
service dates, and send out for re-certification over the winter. Check the
service date on your flares and your EPRIB batteries too.
Tools - Oil your onboard tools to keep them from rusting
over the winter. There is nothing worse than finally deciding to get off the
couch to do some boat work to find your tools rusted in a lump. Use my favorite
corrosion inhibitor CorrosionX for this task.
Seacocks - A few more words about seacock winterizing: you
must operate the sea cock after the boat is out of the water to let trapped
water drain out. Water gets trapped between the “ball” and the housing. It will
drain out at about halfway open/closed. Certain types of seacocks and older
worn seacocks are worse than others, but there isn’t any reason not to exercise
all of your seacocks any way. Take this opportunity to lubricate them with
lithium grease!
Air conditioning and refrigeration – Likely your A/C is
water cooled, but your refrigerator may be air cooled (like at home). There
isn’t any winterizing to do if your system is air cooled, but if A/C or
refrigeration is water cooled it is essential that it gets winterized. The
process is very similar to winterizing the potable water system. Pull the hose
off the intake seacock and put it into a bottle of non-toxic antifreeze. We use
the -50 non-tox that we use on the water systems. Turn on the pump until the
non-tox comes out of the overboard discharge. Take note; if you have more than
one A/C unit you’ll need to do this process for each units. Many larger systems
have one cooling water pump for multiple condensers with multiple discharges.
Typically, the discharge will be near the condenser; therefore, the overboard
discharge thru-hull fittings are spread around the boat. Make sure the non-tox
flows out of all of the cooling water discharges before turning the pump off.
Coolant test – We test the internal engine coolant’s freeze
protection on every boat we winterize. You’d be surprised how many don’t have
the proper freeze protection. The coolant can get watered down over time though
top-offs with water, age, or accumulated condensation. Also, if your boat was
down south long enough to have maintenance done on the engine cooling system, make
sure to get your engine antifreeze tested for freeze protection. Many boats
down south, particularly those with large diesels, run an internal coolant
fluid that doesn’t have any freeze protection.
In closing, your fall goal is to do anything and everything
you can possibly think of doing in the fall so that your already long work list
in the spring doesn’t get any longer. Again, if you have any questions on
winterizing please contact me at andrew@crowleys.com
or Michael at mma@crowleys.com.
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