Winterising

planesailing

im relatively new to boating and hear a lot of people talking about winterising their boats on here. Is this something I should do to mine in the u.k? Any other u.k rinker owners winterise yours? 

aero3113

If you get below freezing its a must. If you don't winterize it there's a chance of cracking your engine block and your fresh water lines.

planesailing

The majority of people in my marina don't tend to winterise but instead just put a heater in the engine bay. Would this work or would you recommend winterising? I've probably got about another 6 weeks before the weather starts to get cold.

06Rinker270

From what I have read a lot of fires start with heaters in the engine room.  Protect your investment 

MarkB

How do you protect your drive from freezing and cracking, if you use a block heater in the engine compartment?  Not all the water gets out, so you have hoses filled with water that are going to freeze at some point between the engine comparment and outside.

I agree that sounds like a fire hazard to me as well.

howardrams

planesailing, Here around the Great Lakes in U.S. or Canada the winters might be at -20 degrees for several months with the lake frozen.  Inside heated storage is about $2000 so many of us winterize everything with antifreeze, and shrink wrap the boats for storage outside where there is no electricity for about $400.  The boats can only be used from about May 1 through mid October.  And our boats used on the inland lakes usually are cooled by water from the lake (not a closed cooling sysem) so they need to be drained.

Not sure if your conditions in UK stay warmer?  My dock in about 2 months from now:

Michael T

That will be mine too :-(  winterizing is not an option but a must.

Gregg

That might be me this weekend,lol calling for 5cm Saturday apparently and white outs.

planesailing

Fortunately we are not that cold here in the uk. Temps occasionally drop below zero during November to February! Luckily our marinas don't tend to freeze up so boats are able to stay in the water all year. Think I'll take all your advice on board and fill the block and drive with antifreeze just to be on the safe side. Think I'd rather spend £20 doing that than a few grand on a new engine come the spring! Think I'll also put a small tube heater in the engine bay as well as they sell them in my chandlers specifically for engine bays and they are only £25, better safe than sorry! Think this weekend will be the last time I take it out until the spring! Sad times!!! Plenty of little jobs to do on it over the winter to keep me busy though. Thanks for all your advice, greatly appreciated as always!

rasbury

Yes Plane, winterizing is quite a strain, I'll share with you my procedures, here is step one of my process which first is a visual:

rasbury

now step two is really where the real effort comes in:

rasbury

now here in Fl, you actually go through this process several times during the harsh harsh winters we have....every time I use the boat!

howardrams

Hardy, Har, Har!!!

planesailing

Rub it in rasbury why don't you! Ha