First Winter with the Boat

[jayw]

I am over at Rustic and will keep her there. They pull her and put her on blocks. Its full service so I just let them do it and I don't have to worry about the trailer. Todd at Lighthouse does my mechanical work on my car Hes a good guy. Id take her there if there ever is a time I could drive her to him by water.

Sounds like you're all set. BTW yesterday was a great day on the water. More boats than you'd think for a Weds. after Labor Day.

[katieclooney]

I am over at Rustic and will keep her there. They pull her and put her on blocks. Its full service so I just let them do it and I don't have to worry about the trailer. Todd at Lighthouse does my mechanical work on my car Hes a good guy. Id take her there if there ever is a time I could drive her to him by water.

Sounds like you're all set. BTW yesterday was a great day on the water. More boats than you'd think for a Weds. after Labor Day.

After you had me paranoid about the no trailer situation I called the marina to confirm....with your slip you get the drop in for the season and the pull out at the end.

Yea it was beautiful yesterday, jealous. I am headed north for the weekend so hopefully I can get on the water mid-week next week and do the Loop

[jayw]

After you had me paranoid about the no trailer situation I called the marina to confirm....with your slip you get the drop in for the season and the pull out at the end.

Makes sense now, they're handling everything. Nice of them to let you winterize on premises, most marinas don't allow it. They want to make the $$.

[katieclooney]

After you had me paranoid about the no trailer situation I called the marina to confirm....with your slip you get the drop in for the season and the pull out at the end.

Makes sense now, they're handling everything. Nice of them to let you winterize on premises, most marinas don't allow it. They want to make the $$.

YOU can do it, but no mechanic can come on the premise and do it. They have that policy

[jayw]

After you had me paranoid about the no trailer situation I called the marina to confirm....with your slip you get the drop in for the season and the pull out at the end.

Makes sense now, they're handling everything. Nice of them to let you winterize on premises, most marinas don't allow it. They want to make the $$.

YOU can do it, but no mechanic can come on the premise and do it. They have that policy

You're lucky then. I know Bald Knob won't let you. They don't even like when I change my prop. Maybe it's insurance, maybe they want the income, who knows. Pretty much any place with an actual service shop is probably that way. I am guessing.

[katieclooney]

Alirght, shes all cleaned.
I shall powerwash her on Saturday.
But I cant find the name of the acid everyone uses to clean the toons.
She has beard

[HandymanHerb]

You need to get the breard off first with the power washer, you can order the cleaner from Pontoonstuff, it's on sale, so with our discount you should get 20 percent off or you can try

http://www.pontoonstuff.com/toon-brite- ... eaner.aspx

[Bamby]

I'm under the impression that you live in a cold climate also. Anyway everyone I'm aware of in my area either stores their boat with the engine trimmed down or if that is impracticable they securely bag or waterproof the lower unit. See orange circle.

Outboard.jpg (270.89 KiB) Viewed 1775 times

The reasoning is that water can and will accumulate in the exhaust area behind the prop. The potential of the freezing and thawing of this water over the winter creating damage is real and easily prevented. So if you can't trim it down for storage find a means of removing any water already accumulated and seal it up watertight and potentially save yourself some grief and $$ come spring.

[curtiscapk]

or cover with a bucket and strap it! I put mine up on the transom saver. So that weight isn't pulling on the wood for 6 months without moving.

[katieclooney]

Thanks for the tip. Ill trim it dowm when I go Sat to wash her. That is the way they had winterized her.

[katieclooney]

Another question. .. if shes already winteri zed do I want to open up the lower unit?

[ROLAND]

Katie.... don't recall if you got your clog cleaned out which was restricting your water from the pee hole... but we started carrying a small spool of weed eater line on the boat... on the few occasions where the pee hole clogged up, we would just kill the motor, shove some weed eater line in the pee hole, then restart the engine... usually repeating this a couple of times did the trick.. and a small spool of line won't take up any storage space on your boat...as for winterizing, what part of the country do you live in.... We keep our boat in an indoor storage facility... not heated but well insulated, plus it doesn't get very cold down here in Louisiana, so most people don't winterize down here.... I would think it would depend on your location and if you keep your boat in a heated garage or building.

[katieclooney]

FML!! ......Its been raining since Wednesday here in Northern Illinois.
Mind you, I cleaned the inside of the boat, treated the vinyl, removed gas, battery and all things off the boat. And then put the dryer sheets in. Only thing left to do was power was toons.
Got a call from the marina today
"Did you want her shrink wrapped?"
"yes. I will powerwash her on Saturday and then you can wrap her."
"Bad news. Because of the rain that was coming, we wrapped her early."

Glad they beat the monsoon, but I didn't get to power wash the toons nor put the charcoal in.

Here is what the toons look like. Is that beard bad that I should attempt to power wash now or wait till spring? I fear loosing control of the power wash and tearing a hole in the wrap. Maybe scrub them instead of power washing?

What do you guys think?
Mechanic said they had to leave her trimmed up because she would hit the ground otherwise.

And Roland, never did get it unclogged that I know of. I removed a butt load of zebra mussels from the intake vents but never went inside the engine.

[tuned]

That is indeed a lovely beard, Katie.
My 2 cents: once growth has had time to dry (even a single day), it is about as bad as it is going to get. In other words, it prolly makes no difference now if you wait until spring to clean. You certainly have a bit of a job ahead of you. Your plastic wrap would probably take the pressure wash if you are careful, but why risk it?
I am fortunate in that the small marina that I stay at puts a pressure washer out in the fall for free use the very second the boat comes out. Saves a lot of time.
Please take the time the spring to sort out your ummm 'urinary issues'. You need to see her peeing at all times.

In the meantime, us Northers have little to do but light a fire, pour a cup of cocoa and watch the flakes fall.

[REPETE]

katieclooney ... the dirt you don't get to in Fall is usually not as big of a problem as you might think in Spring. The main thing is to not let it go more than a full season because they stain sets in.

I just found this to be a general rule for all of my boats and toys. The wife and I used to drive ourselves nuts when we'd clean the toon and then see that the marina doing the shrink wrapping ended up getting it dirty again! ... one year they left it out in the elements for weeks after we had it cleaned and looked like complete crap when the wrapped it. We were bumming out bigtime but come Spring...we were able to get it all cleaned up just fine.