Winterizing

peter_ms · Aug 21, 2015

Motor is much the same.
Engine should have antifreeze in the freshwater side anyway.
For the raw water side just wail til it is hauled; pull the through hull to strainer hose off at the strainer and run a new hose to a container of your antifreeze of choice.
Run the engine until you get a good stream of antifreeze or the container is empty. There isn't a lot of volume on the raw water side, so if I empty the strainer 1st with my shop-vac I can do this with one gallon/4 litres.
I use the shop-vac anyway to empty the "drinking" water side of my boat so it saves diluting the antifreeze with the contents of the strainer
Peter

JK_Boston_Catalina310 · Aug 21, 2015

I have always done 100% of my own work. I don't trust the yard guys at all.

The one fault I have with what you wrote is that you just wait until you see pink. That can lead to trouble. I have a refractometer. I test the antifreeze before it goes in and I keep going until it's the same coming out.

I am also very particular about the antifreeze I use. I have tested the stuff from the two local box stores and it freezes at 20 degrees warmer than the stuff from Defender.

Both of these concepts are nothing new and just info I go from Maine Sail. He has a great article on winterizing water systems. An article on winterizing engines.

A video on why not to use the cheap antifreeze.

And a video on winterizing a diesel engine.

Or you could go with my preferred winterization method I will be using this year: sail south!

Stu Jackson · Aug 21, 2015

DIY

Long Story said:
I just wanted to ask in general how much of the winterizing the typical owner does and how much they leave to the yard to do?

I always left the AC and Engine to the pro's (on the engine more of an insurance factor, you freeze it you fix it)

Russ,

I agree with Jesse. Whether it's winterizing (which I don't have to do) or ANYTHING ELSE, I do it myself.

I've had two guys do stuff on my boat in the past 17 years. They BOTH f-ed up big time. One was a rigger who neglected to Loctite the set screws on my new furling foil that he, himself, had installed. When I recalled him to the boat, he said, "Geez, the a-hole who put these in didn't use Loctite!" Since he was that guy, I waited until he finished before I pushed him into the water! No, not really, BUT I SURELY WANTED TO.

This was only two weeks later, so he didn't recognize my boat and the new furler he just put on????

The other guy redid a lot of my hoses, and insisted on making a loop into the muffler with the engine exhaust hose, when I told him to use the hump hose. Within a week, that loop had worn against itself to the point of killing the hose on itself. I ripped it out and put the hump hose in.

Pros? Insurance? Sheez, if your engine dies because they were jerks, it's only YOU who are left without an engine. If you want a new one so badly, then, sure, go ahead with having Darrell, Darrell and his other brother work on your boat.

The reality is that the MORE YOU do, the safer you will be. Knowledge is power.

And, the reality also is: It ain't that hard. Heck, if they can do it, so can you.

And you're also a frequent flier here on this board. You MUST know about Maine Sail's material by now, right?

Winterizing

Long Story

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peter_ms

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JK_Boston_Catalina310

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Stu Jackson

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Long Story

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