Pacific NW - winterize boat or keep from freezing?

Hey all--

I live just north of Portland, OR, on the west side of the mountains where it doesn't get too cold in the winter but sometimes will drop below freezing. I store my '95 Sport Nautique in a 2 car detached garage that has electrical but no systemic heating or insulation.

I just got my boat a couple of months ago, so I'd really appreciate some advice: how essential is it that I get my boat and engine winterized as stated in the manual? In theory, if I kept my garage above freezing level throughout the winter, would everything be fine? If I did this, how often would I need to run the boat in order to keep everything working right? Is there any kind of "engine block heater" or insulating blanket or whatever that I can get to doubly make sure nothing freezes? Do you riders in southern states "winterize" or just not put it in the water as often, or what?

Thanks for your help. I just hate not having the boat ready to go at any time (even in the winter), and the winterization process seems complex (if I try to do it) and/or costly (if the shop does).

Thanks again everyone,
Tony

If you keep your garage heated and it does not get below freezing in there you should be fine. I live in Vancouver Wa. and keep my boat in the garage and all is fine. I do winterize my boat though because I don't take it out in the winter
I just did it today since temp is dropping into the twentys this week and all it takes is one night of freezing weather to crack that block. You might want to drain the block just to be safe it only takes about a hour or less to do and you could put all the plugs back in and you would still be ready to go anytime.

if you can keep the boat above freezing technically you don't have to winterize, in terms of freezing protection. If you won't be using the boat for a long time you should still use stabil(fuel stabilizer), change the oil(used oil is bad if leaving the boat idle for a while), flush the boat well and drain the block and exhaust system. Running the boat every once in a while would get oil circulating and coat all the internals with some oil, if this would not be possible fogging the engine before a long period of layup would be helpful.

hope this helps good luck

ps. if you are worried about it freezing on a really cold night you can put a heating blanked over the engine

Thanks for the tips, Toms!

Tom A., how often would you consider "every once in a while?" Once a month? More? Less?

Tony, I live near Seattle. We do ride year round, so I have a mini winterize routine. My boat lives next to the house under one of those Costco covers.

At the boat launch, I drain the block, exhaust, heater and shower of water.
This is easy on my boat, there are 4 thumb screews that get most of the water out of the motor and exhaust.
The heater I drain by pulling both the hot and cold hoses off. I just blow through the hot side till the water is purged on the cold side.
The shower I just run for a second to see if there is even any water in it (I never use it anyways).
While the drian plugs and heater hoses are off I start the boat for a few seconds (gets rid of a bit more water). My 1st impeller went over 200 hours doing this, so I don't think that a few seconds of dry running hurts it.
I put the hoses back on and plugs back in. Then I put a block heater on the side of the block (got it from Napa), put the dehumidifier pot on the floor, plug the battery tender in and plug in the golden rod I leave in the rear locker. I also prop the motor cover up a bit (promote air movement). To make this all easy I leave most of this pluged into a power strip. Thay way at home I just plug the power stip in. This whole routine takes minutes. I'm done about the same time the gear is unloaded and the boat wiped down. On the way home I top off the gas tank.

Once home, I just plug the power strip in and I am done.

With the block warm and gas topped off the boat is ready for the next sunny winter weekend.

Since I run the motor during the witner, I don't put antifreeze in the cooling system nor flog the engine.

When I lift the towing up to unplug the power strip at home I can often feel dry warm air come out.

Thanks, Sean. I like your mini-winterization--that sounds like what's for me.

Excuse my ignorance, but what heater are you talking about? The heater I'm thinking of is the electric hot air heater near the cockpit. Is there another heater that has water in it?

Also, no problem on the block heater, but what exactly is the dehumidifer pot, battery tender (this keeps it charged?), and golden rod, and where can I get them? Again, sorry, but I'm a new boat owner.

How often do you put the boat in the water and run it in the winter? What would be a minimum frequency to keep things in top shape?

Thanks again!
--TC

The Golden Rod you can get from Napa sometimes, but most marine stores or places that sell RV stuff have them. The are plug in heating rods used to dry out small areas. Some people place on engine to keep it warm. Mine is about 12 to 18" long and keeps the back locker dry.

The dehumidifer can be picked up at marine/RV shops. The one that I have a about 18" across 8" tall and round. It has a fan and 100watt heating element in it. You just place it in the boat under a morning/towing cover and the warm air keeps things dry and mildew away.

I have a Deltran Trickle charger (any auto parts store or motorcycle shop should have 'em) that I wired a long pig tail to the battery. They come with a quick disconect fused pig tail, I just added additional wire to it so that the end is where I drop my power strip in.

The heater up front in the boat is usually run off of hot water from the engine (just like a car heater). The heater core is usually what gets cold damamge. So I just blow out as much water as possible from the lines and call it good. With temps here a block heater and the dehumidifer pot running under my towing cover the whole inside of the boat stays warm.

I don't know about minimun freq for running the boat. Mine might see 2 to 8 runs a month is the weather is nice during the witner. If you flog it and do the rest, I'm not sure that you really need to actually run it off and on. Just put it back together, change the engine oil and maybe the impeller come spring.

I'm just not a fan of using shop lights or electric blankets for keeping the engine warm. Light burn out at bad times and the block heater is much more conventant to put on and off for me than a blanket.

Thanks, Sean--I'm heading to GI Joe's on my lunch to get the stuff. Here's to winter riding in the NW!

Might sound kind of weird, but for the last 3 years I have put 1-2 strands of x-mas lights in the engine compartment as a precaution to freezing temps.

I keep my boat in the garage and realize that in Portland we do have some nights that get below freezing. Although the temprature shouldn't drop below freezing in the garage, I run a strand (small Bulbs) of lights and basically wrap the motor with them. Sounds kind of funny. But with the small area that you are heating it actually raises the temprature in the engine compartment a few degrees, which would be enough to battle cold days and nights. I got this idea when I was over at a friends house and he had a wine botle stuffed with lights as a display in his kitchen. When I touched it, I realized how hot they were. I light bulb went off in my head and walla! It is kind of like putting a hot water bottle under the covers by your feet when you go to bed. People used to do this in the old days to keep their bed warm. Anyway, It has worked for me nicely for the llast few winters, and whenever there is a nice day during the spring and winter, I can just take out the lights and get my boat out on the water pronto. Hope this helps!!!!