Winterize Your Boat!

If you're living in a northern climate and you've hauled out for the winter, better get moving soon on winterizing your boat's engine and water systems before the first hard freeze comes along. Don't make the mistake I once made and had to pay for in the spring with shock, expense, bruised knuckles—and almost sinking my boat!

The power of water's expansion during freezing is astonishing. Anywhere water gathers in your boat is vulnerable to damage. Follow your engine manual to winterize its cooling system. Then make a good winterizing checklist and pump antifreeze through every single waterline and hose in the boat, including some you may forget about. (Deck wash-down pump? Shower sump? Manual bilge pump?)

In my own case, in the first year with a new-to-me sailboat, I didn't forget or overlook as much as assume too much. I carefully filled every line and hose with antifreeze, and shrinkwrapped the boat for the winter. Launched her in the spring, excited on a warm but windless day, and motored to my mooring. Shut down, prepared to lock up and leave the boat ready for sailing come the weekend, and noticed the bilge pump running. It shut off, I turned away (thinking probably just the stuffing box drip), stowed a few more things, got ready to go—and heard the bilge pump come on again. Oh no!

So I went looking for the source of that little trickle down into the bilge. Seemed to be coming from somewhere way back in the engine compartment, flowing forward beneath the oil pan. Finally I spotted the source: a split in the fat hose running from the starboard cockpit drain. Because the hose ran along the bottom of the hull (beneath the waterline), sea water rose back up in the hose to that level. Fortunately I could simply shut off the seacock for now, but I'd have to replace the hose to make that cockpit drain functional. That little task in an unreachable place alongside the engine mounts took most of a Saturday, skinned my knuckles, and bruised my ego. I had failed to pour antifreeze down the cockpit drains because I'd assumed any water would have drained out. In fact, the hose dipped just enough in its run to collect enough water in a low spot to freeze and split the hose.

A slow leak, but eventually the bilge pump would drain down the battery to which it is directly connected (never wire the pump through a switch you might turn off!)—and then the boat would slowly fill with water and sink. My boat! You can bet I never made that mistake again. So my best advice is to make a very thorough winterizing checklist of all potential water locations and pump antifreeze everywhere!