Another new nut

[zodiacengineer]

I've Been Stalking The Group For A While, Took What Turned Out To Be Great Advice From Folks In The Forum, Found A Boat Here For Sale, Drove Cross Country And Long Story Short Came Home With It . Been Boating Since BoyScout Camp In The Early Seventies. Spent Some Time As A Sea Scout, Sailed El Toros, And Worked My Way Up Thru Tri Hulls, A 26 Ft MacGregor, And On To Crew The 126 Ft Schooner Zodiac. Now We Are Slowing Down And Our New To Us 2008 21Ec Feels Just Right.we Finally Settled On The Name " Happy Tuggether",And Really Enjoy The Forum.
Question? Where Is A Good Place To Have The Tug Winterized? I Stopped In On My Closest Yanmar Dealer In Anacortes And He Quoted Me 800-1200.00 To Winterize A 21 Ft Ranger Tug. I Am Not A Certified Marine Mechanic, But I Am Not An Idiot either. It Seems Like With A Little Help From The Forum A Guy Could Do It Himself On A Saturday, At Most Over The Weekend And Have Plenty Left Over To Have Pizza...Delivered.

 

[walldog]

Welcome to the TugNuts. I love your choice of boats. Our first "Willie's Tug" holds a special place in our hearts. What is nice we get to visit her once or twice a year even now.

Here is a link to winterizing your 21EC. Just be sure to use the RV type pink antifreeze.

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1510&p=10837&hilit=winterize+R21#p10837

Just be aware that, based on your homeport, you may want to go out a several times during the winter. So maybe buttoning her up with a small heater might be a better option.

Herb

 

[CORPSVET]

Welcome to the clan! We got ou C-28 last June and have been having a GREAT time. Lots of crusing and Fishing.
Did the Desolation Sound cruise with @ 65 C/T'S. Then Anacortes with @ 85 C/T's. If you like cruising and gathering you have found the right place. As for fishing Penn Cove/Oak Harbor and the San Juans are the place!
Winter fishing is excellent so a full winterization may not be the best. A space heater works well. But you can certainly do it yourself. It is also good practice for service's and preventive maintenance. I have most of my work done by Bellingham Yachts and the Volvo shop there. But Anacortes is closer to us Oak Harborites.
Good luck and looking forward to seeing you on the water.
Dave

 

[CORPSVET]

I have had good care and help from Mark Dahl and his crew at Mariners Haven at the Oak Harbor marina. They have been good for advice and direction for when I wanted to do it MYSELF. .
Dave

 

[zodiacengineer]

Thanks Dave! See You On The Water! Do You Moor In Oak Harbor?

 

[CORPSVET]

I trailer our C 28. So we keep at home. I did have a slip at the marina for 5 just years when we had bigger boats.

 

[tuggertoy]

If I lived closer to you I would do your winterization for $400.00 and that would still be $350.00 more than it is worth. I know the EC has a few more systems than my R-21 Classic but I would be surprised if it took 2 hours and 4 gallons of RV antifreeze. I can winterize my Classic with less than 2 gallons of antifreeze and in about an hour and a half. That includes changing the oil, the fuel and oil filters and removing the impeller once the motor has been winterized. Since we don't normally put the boat away until mid December I am usually doing this during the first snow of the season so the time involved includes several trips back into the house just to warm my hands. 😉

Eric
Tugger Toy
2006 R-21 Classic

 

[zodiacengineer]

Thanks Eric, I am planning on putting on an Oil Change extension from the bottom of the oil pan with a ball valve at the pan and a cap at the end of the hose as an additional safety and to keep any stray drips out of the bilge. I know a lot of folks just suck the oil out of the dipstick tube, but I can't see going to all that trouble and leaving two cups of sludge in the bottom of the pan to mix with the new oil. I have one of those rather expensive buckets with the 12 volt pump on top and may adapt it to the new hose, but a hand pump actually works faster and there maybe less chance of spilling. If you bump the two way switch on the Oil change bucket it discharges (as in shooting a two foot stream of Oil, seemingly twice as fast as it sucks it out of the bucket and makes an incredible mess in a hurry. I know this from personal experience and from the folks I have Loaned my Oil Changer to.

 

[zodiacengineer]

Soooo my education continues! It seems that the folks at Yanmar really put some thought into the design of their marine engine. It seems the oil dipstick tube wraps around the base of the oil pan and there is no real need to do anymore than attach the hose of my Jabsco brass handy hand pump to the neck of the dipstick tube and in few minutes the too hot to handle oil is very easily pumped from the engine to the awaiting waste oil bucket for disposal. The only "messy" part is changing the filter. Fortunately I had jammed a couple of oil sorbs under the filter so the spilled oil was very easily dealt with sparing the bilge from a single drop of oil. I will figure out a cleaner way of doing this as well in time. Perhaps punching a small hole in the filter and draining it before removing it. Now on the transmission...

 

[trailertrawlerkismet]

When we change the oil filter, after I've drained the engine and have loosened the oil filter a bit, I put a heavy duty freezer type zip lock bag (size appropriate) around the filter. I then continue to loosen the filter until it releases into the zip lock bag. The advantage being that the bag catches any overflow oil spillage as I maneuver the contents from the boat for disposal.

Jim

 

[Lone Star Ranger]

When we change the oil filter, after I've drained the engine and have loosened the oil filter a bit, I put a heavy duty freezer type zip lock bag (size appropriate) around the filter. I then continue to loosen the filter until it releases into the zip lock bag. The advantage being that the bag catches any overflow oil spillage as I maneuver the contents from the boat for disposal.

Jim

Ahhh yes, the old "Use a Ziploc Bag to Catch the Oil and Filter" trick...very nice.
😀