De-winterizing- When is it safe?

[Mo]

Ajax, where do you live?
I find that I can fire up the engine and leave it here without winterizing:
-on the hard around the 1st of April.
-in the water around 1st of March.

Believe it or not, the temp inside a boat in the water, is a little warmer than if on the hard.

FYI, in January of this year we had a C30 sink alongside a dock in Eastern Passage. Temp dropped to about 0 F and he hadn't winterized it. The strainer froze and broke then she filled with water until she sat on her keel...she was half full inside. Her lines kept her upright and they put a pump on her, re-floated her and closed the intake thru hull. This time of year the days are getting longer, and sun is on the boat. Temp may be around the freezing point at night, however, with a boat in the water the water is warmer and will make the difference.

My boat is on the hard so I won't fire it up and loose my anti-freeze for a couple of weeks...unless, of course we show signs of an early spring.

Found a pic of her.

[sastanley]

Mo..that's too bad...she is outfitted nicely..all the fancy lifeline & pulpit upgrades, likely a tall rig with the bowsprit, lots deck hatches to air out the head, extra step on the ladder, which looks funky but might work, etc.

Unfortunately, with the water to that height, 90% of the interior is toast There might be a few electronics in the chart table that survived, but all the wiring in boats newer than mine were done around underneath the settees, so it is all shot. On my boat (77 hull) all the wiring was between the deck, & cabin liner. At the age of the boat..most of that has failed, but on this boat might have at least stayed dry.
Hopefully that boat had a smelly diesel and he'll put in an A-4. More likely, I think the insurance company will likely total the boat.

Too bad...she looks good cosmetically!

[Mo]

Shawn,
I talked to the guy after it happened. He had bought it and his son was supposed to be looking after it...he's an older guy and the son is in he 40's...he screwed up and now insurance will not cover it either because he didn't winterize it or have a heater going. They are on the hook for it and they are dealing with it ... I guess.

[marginal]

Resurrecting an old thread I'm afraid - didn't really find my answer from a search.

I am fully de-winterized, in Ottawa, and on the hard. Tap water in the engine.

Weds and Thurs nights are supposed to dip below freezing (maybe -2C or -3C).
Overnight power to the boat is not an option.

Do I:
1. Don't worry about it, -3C is not going to crack anything (?)
2. Drain the water from the strainer, pump, manifold and block to sleep well at night?
3. Fully re-winterize again with antifreeze?

I'm hoping #1, but will probably end up with #2 to keep my mind at rest.

What do you think?
Thanks
Simon

[BunnyPlanet169]

I'm hoping #1, but will probably end up with #2 to keep my mind at rest.

Sounds like you know what you want to do already....

[marginal]

Sounds like you know what you want to do already....

I think you are right, and come to think of it, if I'm going to the effort of #2, sucking in some new pink stuff is only an extra 2 minutes work.

[tenders]

I would personally not worry about a night or two of weather a handful of degrees below freezing. The interior of the boat will take a while to follow the air and get below freezing, and the block has quite a few BTUs (sorry, calories) in it that will greatly lengthen the time it takes for water to change state into ice.

Leave a bottle of water in your car's cupholder for reference. The water in your A4 will be even more reluctant to freeze since it's surrounded by a large, relatively warm engine.

[toddster]

Last fall, we had an unexpected arctic deep-freeze in November, when I was out of the country. Temps dropped from 50-ish to 10-ish and stayed that way for a week. I hadn't weatherized the boat at all. It came through with no problems, presumably because the river water wasn't all that cold yet. So I ended up never winterizing the boat this year. Although I did stick a heater in the cabin with the thermostat set at 50 (lowest setting.) The marina charged me eight whole dollars for electricity!

I wish I could say that the greenhouse and irrigation manifolds came through so well. Still fixing those - well, replacing for the most part.

[cdhickey]

In theory you should be fine, but pumping a bit of antifreeze through the block isn't a lot of work and personally I'd err on the side of being cautious. I had my engine more or less de-winterized last week to do some prep work for launch, but because I'm going to be out of town for the next week with temps possibly hovering around the freezing mark I decided to suck in some antifreeze just to be safe. It may be overkill, but I'll sleep better without that worry.

[joe_db]

At my marina the score for this winter was 2 total sinkings and 5 partial
We haven't had weather that cold for a century

[Mo]

At my marina the score for this winter was 2 total sinkings and 5 partial
We haven't had weather that cold for a century

My good friend pick up a 35 footer last summer and she sank at the dock in February (different club). His strainer froze and she went down by the bow and stern up at the dock. Luckily the water wasn't that deep but he had to pickle the engine, re-wire and upholstery...insurance won't cover that because he forgot to close that sea cock. Apparently there were a few like that here in Halifax this year. He just signed up at our club, he was a member a number of years back but moved his boat to a club near his workplace. Anyway, coming back and hang with the old gang. He's a retired Journalist, Documentary broadcaster, newspaper editor.... just wrote a book on the biggest political scandal in Canada in years. We have had many "Conferences" over the years. Conferences always hurt the next day.