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How to Winterize Your Sailboat – Part 1

How to prepare your boat for winter
without paying a fortune to your marina

Click here for PART 2

If you have to lay up your boat during the winter due to the freezing weather, there is just one objective to the whole process – you must remove all fluids from the boat, or protect them from freezing by the addition of anti-freeze.

Everything else is secondary.

Frozen water, whether it’s in your water lines, engine, batteries, heater tank, bilge, toilet or anywhere else on the boat will cause serious damage.

And remember, your insurance policy may not cover any damage caused by lack of maintenance.

The first step to winterizing your boat is: Check your Owners manual (if you have one) for any specific requirements.

Then proceed to step 1:

Prepare a Checklist

You need to prepare a comprehensive checklist of the work to be done, and the sequence in which it needs to be done, otherwise you’re sure to forget something. So take a pencil and paper and start an initial list as you read on.

You can follow the steps noted below, or make your own sequence. Just make sure you cover all the bases.

1. Clean out the boat

2. Drain all the water from the fresh water system

3. Drain and winterize the head

4. Winterize the batteries

Winterize your diesel inboard engine

1. The fuel system

2. The oil system

3. The fresh water cooling system

4. Flush the raw water cooling system

5. Replace the raw water with anti-freeze

6. Other items to cover

Winterize your gasoline inboard engine

Follow the steps 2-5 above for the diesel engine then continue here.

1. The fuel system

2. Other items to cover

Clean and inspect your boat

1. Internal clean

2. External clean

3. Inspect the hull

4. Inspect sundry systems

Click here for PART 2