Winterizing a Boat

Updated on September 29th, 2020

I hate winterizing the boat. Boat haul day may just be the most depressing day of the year. It means the days are getting shorter, colder, and decidedly more boring. It also means that unless we dole out large amounts of cash to a charter company, or magically find friends in warmer climates who also sail, there will be no more sailing for the next 6 months. Anyone in Florida, the Caribbean or California want to be our friends?

As depressing as winterizing the boat is, it is a necessary evil. No one wants to go to the boat in the spring and find that winter has left you with a boat that smells bad, doesn’t start or has a few new furry occupants. We have been using the same steps to winterize our boat for years, and have very good results.

Step 1 Pack Up

Trust us, you do not want to leave any of your soft goods on the boat. Towels, Sheets, even cushions should go home and to your attic or a closet. This is especially true if you live in an area where they sand roads and your storage location is close to a road. It kicks up a lot of dust that gets into everything and you end up having to bring it home to wash in the spring anyway.

Winterizing is a great opportunity to empty out any of those “junk drawers”, check expiration dates (don’t forget your flares!), and generally declutter. This year I figured out that we had put 8 beach towels on board. We did not have any guests this year. Why??

The only things we leave on the boat over the winter are:

• Water–Because we forgot it on our first sail every year. You only need to spend one 8 hour day without water on board to realize it’s probably a good idea to leave a little onboard.
• Toilet Paper–Ditto.
• Quarters–Yard work is dirty work. Typically marinas leave their showers open for at least the first month or two after haul out and the first month before haul out. Showers are important, especially if you have any fiberglassing to do.

Step 2 Take Sails and Canvas Off

Critters love canvas and will nest in and chew on your dodger, bimini or sunshade. And by “nest in”, I really mean pee on. That stink does not go away. Also, if the plastic panels of your dodger or enclosure sit in water or even worse get oil on them, they will warp and discolor. Bring them home!

It’s also a good opportunity to send sails for cleaning.

Step 3 Pump Out

I think this one should go without saying but get a good pump out at the end of the season. Tip the attendant a little extra and ask if you can pump and rinse a couple of times. If like us you have a really small holding tank they won’t care. If it’s bigger they may charge you twice, it is worth it.

Step 4 Water System Winterization

When winterizing a boat it’s important to properly take care of your water systems. The results of improperly winterized water systems can be messy and expensive. Pipes don’t just burst at your house if they get too cold!

The first step is to drain all of the water from your tanks. You will need a few jugs of anti-freeze, every boat is a little different but our boat takes two gallons, a bigger boat could take much more than that. Turn your water pump on and pump the antifreeze through the system (including your hot water heater), until it comes out foamy at the faucet. The antifreeze will protect the system from potentially freezing during the winter.

You’ll also want to put another gallon or so of antifreeze into your head and pump it until you can see pink in the tank.

Step 5 Winterizing the Engine

Your engine is likely one of the most expensive pieces of equipment on your boat. It deserves some serious TLC after the work it did for you all summer! The first thing we do is perform an oil change while the boat is still in the water. If your engine is a diesel you can follow these steps:

• Drain all the oil out of the engine. This can take a couple of hours, so you may want to start this before you work on any of the other projects.
• Change the oil filter.
• Refill the engine with oil.
• Run it for a little while to circulate the new oil.

One the boat is hauled you have a few more things to take care of before you can say you’ve winterized your boat:

• Pull the glow plug out.
• Put oil down the glow plug holes. This helps coat the cylinders and leaves the pistons sitting in a nice pool of oil all winter.
• Replace the glow plugs.
• Fog the engine. Spray fogging oil into the air intake as the engine turns over a couple of times. Do this with a cold engine. The oil is enough to make the engine run away if the engine is warm.
• Disconnect the exhaust system.
• Cover the air intake and exhaust exit with plastic bags to help keep moisture and critters out.

Step 6 Power Wash

There are two schools of thought on when to power wash and do bottom paint. We typically do those things in the spring, when 50 degrees feels like 75 to our winter ravaged bodies. The same temps in October or November feel significantly colder. If you don’t like the idea of your boat looking dirty in the yard all winter go-ahead power wash now, but for heaven’s sake paint at the same time. Ain’t nobody got time to power wash a boat twice in one offseason.

Step 7 Pull the Plug

You’ll want to remove the plug when winterizing your boat for two reasons. The first is that you don’t want bilge water to freeze and cause damage. The second is that if you live in a place it snows you want a way for the snowmelt to exit the boat. Your bilge pump will likely not be working onshore so this is your easiest point of exit.

Step 8 Cover the Boat

A good cover is like a nice winter blanket for your boat. Keeping it warm, cozy, and clean. Free of ice build-up and snow weight. There are three main choices for covering your boat:

1. Shrinkwrap: Shrinkwrapping while winterizing a boat should be left to the professionals. It involves a heat gun and a lot of melting plastic. The boatyard will usually build you a timber shell that they then cover with plastic. Advantages: pretty near air-tight and someone else deals with it. Disadvantages: Hard to access your boat once in place and expensive.
2. Custom Made Cover: The upfront cost of a custom made cover deters most people but Andy and I figured out the ROI (return on investment) between that and shrinkwrap. It would only take two winters with our custom cover to pay for a single winter of shrinkwrap. Needless to say we bought one and love it. Advantages: Easy to put up, don’t normally require a frame, durable, and easier access to your boat. Disadvantages: High upfront cost, need to store it when it’s not in use.
3. Tarps: This is the least expensive but also usually the least effective way to cover your boat. We used some sort of tarp homemade contraption for years. Finally, after Andy dug out our 3rd or 4th collapse he finally relented that we needed a different solution. If you live somewhere were a 10-12 inch snowstorm is once a century, lucky you, and tarps are probably all you need. Advantages: Cheap, easy access to the boat because it probably has blown off in the last storm. Disadvantages: prone to blowing away, collapsing, and building the wood frame is a pain.

This year because our mast is down for the winter we won’t be able to use our custom cover. We are back to good old tarps and wood frame. We had a “bomb cyclone” last week. There is a 100% chance our boat is not covered anymore. We are just way too cheap to pay for shrinkwrap.

Step 9 Laundry and Dishes

When winterizing the boat I like to do laundry before putting the sheets, towels and other soft goods away. It just makes life easier in the spring. If you use fabric softener and store everything with a few dryer sheets it will still be fresh in the spring.

I also like to run all of the dishes through the dishwasher before storing for the winter. This is probably overkill but I just don’t have to think about it in the spring!

Step 10 Wallow

We will just be over here pouting for the foreseeable future. Just kidding, sort of. Andy will be jumping into our refit projects (read grinding and fiberglass) over the next few weeks until the first snow forces us to start work on cushions and canvas! So many exciting projects coming over the next few months! Stay tuned!