Winter is coming

[Andre Kapuscinski]

Hi! I just bought this Hunter 30 in Florida, where the boat used to live all of it's life. Now she's moving to Toronto, Canada I am flying this friday to quickly winterize it before the trip here. Any hints of what should I do, I only have 5 hours between the flights.Should I worry about the hot water heater, head, bathroom plumbing, winterizing the heat exchanger in the engine since it is not well below zero yet, or can I do proper winterizing at home?Any info would be appreciated.Thanks

 

[Steve O.]

do your homework

Read Peggie's article on this website about winterizing. Winterize the fresh water and waste systems and the engine. Is there somewhere nearby the boat where you can buy non-toxic anti-freeze? Yoiu don't want to spend 2 hours looking for it. You may need a length of hose to attach to the fresh water intake, but you could that with you on the plane. If you drain the HW heater it should be OK until you get her back to Canada, eh.

 

[Richard Bryer]

5 hour winterization

Hope you dont have far to go from the airport.What I would do ( we brought our 34 in about this time and you do run the risk of it being in some freezing temperatures.I would run the HW system dry and put at least 4 gallons of pink in each tank and run the taps until you see pink. Disconnect and drain HW heater before doing this.Take off hose to thru hull for head and put in jug of pink and pump it thru - I hope the holding tank is pumped?Put the hose from the cooling water intake into a jug of pink and run it thru the engine- if you are alone and the boat is in the water I would just run two gallons thru.If the boat is out of the water open all thru hulls. If not and it is being hauled in the next day or so, I might leave them open.Make sure the boat is ready to go- take your dorades off and anything else that will blow offmake sure everything is tied down and padded where it could rub.Anyone else think of anything else- maybe check the "permanent" antifreeze if you have it.

 

[Bob Polk]

Alternate Plan

Leave your boat in FL for the winter since its there. Take a few vacations during the winter. Bring it back in hte spring! I wish my boat was in Florida.

 

[John Vasey]

Check Yanmar closed cooling for -25-35 degrees

Andre, make sure you check the Yanmar closed cooling system to ensure it has enough antifreeze to survive our winters, they do not need to worry in FLA but we do! and yes do all your draining and winetrizing down there, I bought my H410 in the BVI's and had it trucked from Florida last year and we were not sure how she would like her first below 80 dgress F winter but she did all right!.