Winterizing In Water Techniques & Bilge Heaters

[Eric R]

Morning, Tugnuts!

For those of you that winterize in water, what techniques are you using to clear water from the seacock to the strainer? I see people typically dump antifreeze into the strainers themselves to flush systems, but that of course got me thinking of the section from the seacock to the strainer itself. I have four seacocks on my C28 and 3 of them seem near impossible to get to in order to remove hoses from the inlet side.

Also, I have been thinking about purchasing a bilge heater as well for extra peace of mind. I looked at the Caframo Pali, but at 400W I'm wondering if that is really sufficient for a bilge of my size in the Chesapeake Bay area where we can get lows in the teens at times in the winter. I also looked at the Twin Hornet 45, which is rated at 700W. Anyone used either of these heaters in their boats with a similar size bilge?

Thanks!

 

[dclagett]

On my larger boat that stayed in the water year round I took the hose off the seacock which allowed the water to drain from the sea strainer. For the water still in the top of the seacock I used a shop vac. Don't forget to drain the seacock ball valve, remove the screw on the side of the ball valve.

On my RT it is not possible to pull the hose off the seacock without removing the sea strainer from its mounting. If yours is a similar setup you may try to use a small pump with a hose inserted thru the sea strainer to the seacock. Good luck.

As far as the use of a bilge heater is concerned I never used one. I always winterized all systems and never had a problem in 6 years of leaving the boat in the water during the winter. The creek where I kept the boat would freeze solid each winter so I used a single ice eater which kept ice from around the hull.

I have a friend in Baltimore that had a Sea Ray 34 for the last 15 years and he never winterized the engine. He only used a bilge heater, he never admitted to a problem. My concern would be power outages. However if you are close to your boat and can monitor the power that should not be a problem.

 

[Eric R]

Thanks for the reply and tips.

Is it possible for seacocks to not have a drain screw? I don’t recall seeing one. Just the valve itself and the ground wiring attached to it. Like your RT, it definitely appears that I would have to remove the strainer entirely to get the hose off. It’s only about a 6” or so section of hose, most of which feels like it’s on the fittings anyway. I bought some clear plastic tubing which I plan to fish down the inlet side. Should be able to suck it dry by doing that.

Another method that I came across on Google was using air to blow all the water back out of the hose and seacock, then closing it when you saw bubbles coming from the side of the boat (and before turning off the air). I guess that would eliminate the need to drain a ball valve as well since it would essentially be all air at that point?

I never used a bilge heater with my previous boat, but I had always paid someone to winterize it. This is my first year with the Cutwater and learning to do it myself, which makes it frustrating realizing all the money I spent over the years for something that really isn’t that difficult. But it also brings a little extra anxiety, hence the thought of getting a heater as a second level of protection. [emoji3]


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[dclagett]

I have never seen a seacock without a drain for the ball valve, but they may exist. Blowing out the hose and seacock sounds like it should work ok, however I still prefer draining the water out. Yes, it is simple to winterize a boat. If you don’t mind getting your hands dirty there are many maintenance tasks you can do to save money and make sure they are done correctly.

This is off topic but I see you are on the Chesapeake and you keep your boat in the water. Have you had problems with you external hull strainer clogging with barnacles or other debris and causing the engine temperature to rise? I am Thinking about changing mine to an external strainer that gives me a greater strainer area to the thru hull pipe size. Currently it looks like my external strainer is about 3 or 4 to 1. I plan to go to about 18 to 1 which will provide significant more strainer surface area. It also has a replaceable screen and a door to clean out the thru hull to make maintenance easier. It seems my area of the Chesapeake is hard on external strainers unless you run your boat several times a week. I can’t do that so I need to find another solution.

 

[Eric R]

So you are correct, all the seacocks appear to have drain plugs. My boat has ground wires attached to all of them, which is what threw me at first. With that said, they are all installed in such a way that nothing would drain out of them anyway. They are all either pointed straight up or angled up. I ended up doing the shop vac method and it seems to work great. For all four seacocks I hooked up the shop vac, turned it on then opened the valve. You could hear the water bubbling under the boat quite a bit. After 10 seconds or so I would quickly close the valve in order to prevent water from getting back into the ball valve and then turned the shop vac off. I’m pretty pleased with how well it worked out.

I’m actually on the Potomac (Aquia Creek), so I don’t really have the barnacles issue. This was my first season with the boat in general and no issues with debris clogging things up either. I ran steady temps all season, even on 3+ hour runs.


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[dclagett]

Great, glad all worked out well with winterization. Another item to think about is are you going to cover the boat? I would at least put a slant cover over the cockpit in the event of a large snowfall. There have been boats that sunk with too much snow in the cockpit which lowered the stern enough to allow water into the scuppers.

Thanks for the input on your thru hulls, I wish the Choptank River would not have so many barnacles.

 

[Eric R]

It's funny you mention a cover. I was literally just thinking about that this morning. My previous boat had a camper canvas enclosure, so I never worried about anything other than brushing it off if we had a big snow.

Any recommendations? Not sure where to even start with that one.

 

[dclagett]

As far as a cover for the cockpit is concerned a lot will depends on the conditions the boat will be under during the winter. If the boat is out in the open and subject to significant wind I would either have the cockpit shrink wrapped or have a cover made out of canvas/Sunbrella with sufficient supports. If the boat is shielded from the wind you may be able to get away with a poly tarp (I like the Silver/black) starting at the cabin roof with it slanted down to the transom. For supporting the cover you can either use 3 2X4s or 3 heavy lines from the cabin roof fanned out across the transom. To tie the cover down at the bottom use the hand rails or water bags hung over the side of the boat.

Again a lot depends on your proximity to the boat and how concerned you are about significant snow which we don't get that often. Most of the time a cover for the cockpit will not be required. I traveled a lot in the winter, so I prepared the boat for the worst that could happen, knowing I would be unable to reach the boat to remove significant snow.

Hope this helps.