If you haven’t started yet, now is the time to get going and winterize your boat for the upcoming winter season. Luckily no real frost has settled over the country yet. And as such, you might still have a few good weekends to get the job done; but time is ticking fast. Head to the marina whenever you have time to winterize your boat and protect your investment.
However, wintering isn’t just about paying the mooring fees and taking a few items with you. Especially with the predicted brutality of this upcoming winter season, extra care should be taken when winterizing your boat to ensure its health for spring operations. If you are winterizing a boat for the first bootsführerschein online time, our quick guide will give you a good start on the key components that will protect your engine and keep it in good condition during the winter.
First scrub the deck and any enclosed compartments of your boat. Use a strong detergent and really get into the grout and the dirt that inevitably goes there. Remove all items such as personal items or fishing gear from the deck and store away. Leave the cabins and freshly cleaned outside compartments open for air, at least until you’ve completed the winterization process. The air dries out the cleaned compartments and prevents mold growth.
A big part of boat winterization is engine prep. Take your boat out for a final spin and listen to the sounds it makes and look for irregularities in engine operation. When you return to the marina, clean the engine of oil stains or other by-products. Such corrosives will slowly wear out your engine, and if you are not extra careful, the corrosion will cripple you through a long winter.
Next, change your engine’s oil for a fresh oil. While you’re in there, replace or clean the filter and run the boat for about ten minutes to flush the new supply of oil through the systems. Finally, finish the engine prep by spraying the engine with a coat of mist oil to protect the clean system from winter frost.
Another major concern when winterizing a boat is fuel tank management. There are pretty much two schools of thought on what to do with the fuel in a fuel tank. The first option is to always completely empty the fuel tank; However, this is quite difficult to do effectively. The second is much easier. Drain the fuel tank as much as possible and fill it COMPLETELY with fresh fuel. Then treat the fuel in the tank with a stabilizer or biocide (diesel engines only) and run the engine for about 10 minutes to allow the new stabilized fuel to circulate through the engine systems.
Finally, close all the compartments and take out all your personal belongings one last time. Tow your boat up the jetty and presto; You have successfully winterized your boat. Depending on mooring rules and RV storage, you may be able to store your boat in the marina over the winter. Either way, getting your boat out of the water for the winter months is most desirable.
Boating should be a fun and relaxing experience
It always has been for me. I started boating with the family, my sister and her husband had a pontoon and my brother had a speedboat. We would head out on one of the many lakes in the area, packed with snacks and cold drinks. Sometimes they fished, I was never a big fisherman. Normally someone would want to go waterskiing with my brother’s boat. I had tried this when I was much younger and found out on the first try that it wasn’t something I would ever be good at. Did you know that if you fall, you have to let go of the tow rope? No one told me this, and I now jokingly tell tales of touring the bottom of Lake Wissota.
My sister’s pontoon was a different story. It was an older 20ft Playbuoy with a 25hp Evenrude two-stroke engine. It was a lot slower than my brother’s boat but I found it much more comfortable. You could actually have a conversation without yelling and put your drink on a table without fear of it tipping over and splashing onto the carpet or into my lap. In my brother’s boat, on the other hand, you could hold your drink tightly in your hand and then suddenly hit a wave going off at full speed, and the liquid would fly out of the opening at the top of the can. Then the wind caught the liquid and spat it over everything in its path.
Needless to say, I chose the pontoon when it came time sbf binnen for me to buy my own boat. A speedboat is great if you want to get from point A to point B in a nanosecond, but I’m in no rush to get anywhere that fast. My first boat was my sister’s old Playbuoy. A good entry level boat but I knew the time would come for an upgrade. My current boat is a 2007 20ft Bennington with a 90hp Yamaha 4-stroke engine and I absolutely love it. The 4-stroke is much quieter than the old Evenrude and the boat itself is heavier so it runs much smoother. The toons are also bigger and I think that helps with stability. I had always heard good things about Bennington pontoons being called “the Cadillac of pontoons”. Another reason to choose Bennington is that the dealership is right on the lake. So if I ever have a problem, which I haven’t had before, I can call them and they will help me. There are some things about the boat that I would change if I could do it again and I blame myself for that. I can’t explain why, but I’ve never asked the dealer what options are available. For example, my pontoon is equipped with two fisherman’s seats at the front, which cannot be used under power for safety reasons, and a live well, and as mentioned before, I am not a fisherman.
Now to the reason for this writing. A few years ago I called an old friend to see if he would like to spend a day on the lake. We went to school together for 12 years and had always been friends, but hadn’t seen each other for a few years. I figured a day on the water would be the perfect way to catch up. He told me that he was busy that day but that I should call him another time. That’s a problem with boating, you can’t plan too far ahead because it all depends on the weather. I never called him again. Then, last summer, I returned to my hometown for the annual celebration and parade. I met my boyfriend and we spent a few hours chatting and during the conversation he confessed to me that he really wasn’t busy the day I called but he told me that he used to be with His wife’s family used to boat it was always a hassle. Who brings what, when are you driving, I thought you were driving, and well, you get the idea. I told him that the only thing anyone who is going with me to have to worry about if I go with the pontoon is that they bring their own cooler filled with whatever they want to drink and any snacks, that he wants. To be fair I did tell him about the cover and how a hassle it is to take it off and put it back on at the end of the day, but it’s something that needs to be done.
