Winterizing

[hpeer]

Moving to a dock with electricity was quite expensive, I forget exactly but something like > $1k more for the season.

[hugosalt]

Would not leave a heater on for extended period of time, winter boat fires happen. Fit a valve that will isolate raw water intake
and take a hose fitting...after sail when motor is hot put the end
of hose in bucket of anti freeze and run motor till the anti freeze
starts coming out and stop motor...then leave with peace of mind...motor will not freeze during prolonged cold spells and you don't have to worry about a heater which may fail or worse.
Installing valve is quick and easy.
Dockhead: seems that I remember some palm trees in the
southwest of England! Northern Delaware climate a little inland
on the C and D canal is somewhat colder. possible as much as
20-25 degrees F in a extreme winter
I refer to the the agricultural zone charts for reference.
Hugo

[hpeer]

FWIW the heater is an Espar Airtronics D4. Forced hot air, no circulating water. They are used to heat truck cabs, campers and the like. They are intended so truck drivers can sleep without running the engine. Presumable a fire in a truck cab would be kinda bad.

Also they sell a 7 day timer that is default to run the thing for 2 hours before you show up. 2 hours sounds like a lot of opportunity to catch fire.

Don't mean to be argumentative to kind words and free advice but it is kinda hard to see how that would/could catch fire. I leave the heat in my house on all the time without a second thought.

Just can't see the mechanism. Maybe not enough imagination.

[Sandero]

You want to get all the water our of low spots especially near fittings as if it has water and it freezes it will crack and then leak.

Try to get all the water out of the system - open up all the lowest connections.

Not smart to leave a heater on when you are not around.

Top up your fuel tanks so you don't get condensation.

Trickle charge your batts with a solar panel. That should hold them at full charge including some bilge pumping.

Visit your boat regularly and check the lines and the bilge.

Run anti freeze in the sea water circuit of your engine until you see some come out the exhaust. Kill the engine and your set. Close all sea cocks.

Look it up on the internet... they explain it all.

[Chief Engineer]

Marinas around here frown on electric heaters and lightbulbs left unattended.

[CD motorsailer]

Originally Posted by hpeer

We are going to leave our sailboat in the water this year and was wondering what sage advice you folks have for winterizing.

She will be in Delaware City on the Chesapeake and Delaware canal. There is a strong tidal current through here so, although we get ice flushing through we don't get frozen in.

The dock will NOT have electricity.

The boat is a 44' custom steel cutter with a 2006 yanmar engine.

We will be at the boat periodically and hope to continue to use here off and on all winter.

Your thoughts please regarding;
protecting the engine
holding tank (Vetus flexible)
water to galley sink - foot pump, no pressure
water to head sink - pressure

Just do your normal winterization and check on the boat occasionaly.Some owners close there seacocks,some don`t.
richard