For whatever it is worth, here is my list: - change oil - change oil filter - change (check?) fuel filters - change transmission oil - clean and drain the strainer on the fresh water cooling intake - drain the fresh water side of the cooling system and replace with RV antifreeze (EG or PG?) paying extra attention to the Aqua-Lift muffler - drain fresh water tank - drain water heater - prep all hoses in the fresh water system for winter (either blow them with air pressure or put antifreeze in (or both)). - pump out the holding tank - pump antifreeze through the head - stabilise fuel in the fuel tank (add stabiliser and potentially some antibacterial agent) - run some antifreeze through all of your bilge pumps (including the manual one)
I recently installed a bypass for the water heater and I ask myself, why I did not do it any sooner. It saves a lot of time and plenty of antifreeze. For winterising the water system, I run the tank dry, then blow the water out (with an air compressor; you need a $7 fitting that you can buy at any RV store or Canadian Tire) – make sure you blow it out of ALL faucets (cold and hot), drain the water heater (it is 25 l (6 gal) – it takes a while), pump AF through the system (again through ALL faucets). Here is where the heater bypass helps – if you have one, you don’t need to fill the water heater with AF (25 l of it!). If you are a belt and suspender kind of guy, you can now blow the antifreeze out of the water system; I do. This way if there are any low spots, dead legs etc. in your water system, they are now filled with the AF, not the water, but most of the system is empty. Some people, even here (in Ottawa) leave their masts up (very few). There might be issues with the rigging when it gets really cold. The shrouds and stays would shrink, so you may want to loosen them a bit. There are also some discussions about water getting into some fittings and freezing there. Have fun Marek s/v “Legato” (on the hard, fully winterised) in Ottawa From: Bernard Toews via CnC-List Sent: Tuesday, November 04, 2014 10:09 AM To: Burt Stratton Cc: cnc-list@cnc-list.com Subject: Re: Stus-List Winterizing my boat and Sea cocks Thank-you very much for your extended and informative response. I'll keep your email handy for future reference. Bernie On 4 November 2014 09:00, Burt Stratton <bstrat...@falconnect.com> wrote: Beyent, Congratulations on your purchase! I am in a similar position although I have relatively extensive power boat ownership experience. When it comes to winterizing they are very similar. The standing rigging being the major difference. I see many owners here keep their rigs up over the winter. Up there, I might talk to some local folks about that. I don’t know what those kinds of temperatures would do to your rig. I am taking mine down this year because I am having the boat transported to my home but it stayed up last year. I would welcome other opinions but IMHO I would not bother draining anything engine related as long as you run the correct anti-freeze through the cooling system as you described. I will admit that we don’t have experience with that kind of cold down here in Massachusetts but we will see below zero Fahrenheit. If you get the anti-freeze distributed through your systems it should protect all of it including the silencer. All the draining and disassembly sounds redundant. You of course need to add the correct type and concentration of anti-freeze to any system that has water in it. (head, fresh water, heat pump, etc.) Also, the sea strainer on the intake of your raw water cooling system may need to be drained or I just pour anti-freeze into it if there is any standing water left in there. Mine empties out pretty well when on the hard with the seacock open. Also, if you don’t have a garboard drain in the hull you may want to put some anti-freeze in the bilge to account for any standing water there. Make sure you treat your gas. I like to make sure my tank is full in order to minimize condensation but there are others who like to keep the tank as empty as they can to avoid having all that fuel age over the winter. I use Startron and have never had a problem even with gas that has sat for a couple years. I use a higher concentration than suggested on the container. Burt From: CnC-List [mailto:cnc-list-boun...@cnc-list.com] On Behalf Of Bernard Toews via CnC-List Sent: Tuesday, November 04, 2014 9:30 AM To: cnc-list@cnc-list.com Subject: Stus-List Winterizing my boat and Sea cocks I'm new to cnc. I should mention that I have never owned anything bigger than a two man dinghy until I bought a 1979 34 C&C ( Hull No. 175) so I'm in the unfortunate position of knowing very little about my boat and so I have lots of questions and only a few answers. Websites, books and forums are very important to me. I would classify myself as an inexperienced boat owner although I am some experience sailing a keel boat. I am trying to learn to maintain the boat myself and I'm finding that the learning curve is very steep. I am trying to get to know my boat and make sure I do things right. I am winterizing the boat myself for the first time. I live in an area with a harsh winter climate (Winnipeg, Manitoba) where the temperature can drop to 40 below Celcius in the winter (not counting wind chill factors). The boat has a raw water cooled 30 hp Atomic 4 engine. I want to make sure that I am doing everything correctly when winterizing my boat. I have pumped RV 50 below anti-freeze into the engine until the anti-freeze ran out of the exhaust. I didn’t warm up the engine at the time since the boat was on the hard and I had no water source. So, in order to be safe, I will be taking out the thermostat and running anti-freeze through the engine again. I will then open and leave open the three drain plugs or cocks ( cylinder block drain cock located on the port side, drain plug located on the port side near the water pump, and the manifold drain plug). I have been told to drain the muffler in full for the winter but I don’t know what that means or how to drain the muffler or even where it is located. Also, I have been told to loosen the water pump cover and drain it. I’m not sure how to do this. I would welcome responses and comments about these matters and also if there is anything else I should be doing to winterize the engine or other parts of the boat. I welcome any suggestions about sea cocks as to where they are located and which sea cocks should be open over the winter and which should be closed during the winter. I apologize for this lengthy message and will try to be brief in the future. Beyent -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _______________________________________________ This List is provided by the C&C Photo Album Email address: CnC-List@cnc-list.com To change your list preferences, including unsubscribing -- go bottom of page at: http://cnc-list.com/mailman/listinfo/cnc-list_cnc-list.com
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