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From: Bob H (no email)
Date: Wed Oct 03 2007 - 00:04:11 EDT
You've got to be kidding! Pink antifreeze in your freshwater holding tank?
That's not at all recommended. Break a fitting just before your freshwater
pump and tap a flexhose to it and stick it in the jug of pink and fill/flush
your lines that way. Pink should never go in the tank or water heater.
Also ... PLEASE do NOT use toxic automotive antifreeze in any aspect of
winterization. Discharging that into storm sewers or directly into water is
EXTREMElY irresponsible.
Cheers!
----- Original Message -----
From: <>
To: <>
Sent: Monday, October 01, 2007 9:05 AM
Subject: Re: T&T: Winterizing a boat
> I know that it is a strange topic to bring up in these Dog Days of summer
> but some T&T listees are concerned about the necessity of winterizing
> boats
> stored above the Mason-Dixon line. Here is my take on the subject. I've
> lived
> in
> New York and Boston, the Chesapeake Bay area, Georgia, and Florida and had
> boats in all locations.
>
> Winterizing is not really necessary for boats stored in the coastal
> Carolinas
> and south. Even if the temperature drops below freezing, it takes about 24
> hours of sub-freezing weather to do any damage. Worry about winterizing if
> you
> can build a snowman and have it last more than a day without melting.
> Worry
> warts will winterize in North Carolina if the boat is stored on the hard.
>
> Winterizing is necessary for boats left out of the water in the Chesapeake
> Bay area. Cold snaps lasting several days are common in the Bay area,
> especially
> in the northern reaches. One of the coldest days I ever experienced was in
> Washington, DC. The external plumbing in older houses burst and left quite
> a
> cleanup mess. I recall that it was during the week of Reagan's
> inauguration.
>
> For boats left from Virginia north, winterizing is an absolute must.
>
> Winterizing itself is a simple, although slightly time consuming task. The
> basic philosophy is to replace all liquids with those of lower freezing
> points.
> Here is the drill.
>
> 1. Empty all water and holding tanks. Top off the fuel tanks. Drain the
> onboard plumbing. For those boats where the plumbing cannot be entirely
> emptied,
> put a few gallons of pink non-toxic antifreeze in the empty water tanks
> and
> pump
> it through the lines until the water runs pink out of the faucets. Don't
> forget the water heater and the accumulator (if your boat has one). I
> usually
> change the oil at this time to prevent any residual acids from doing
> damage.
> It's
> probably just for my peace of mind.
>
> 2. Remove the engine(s) pressure cap and test the water with an antifreeze
> tester. If the freezing temperature is above -30 degrees, add enough
> straight
> antifreeze until it gets that low. Run the engine for a few minutes to mix
> the
> cooling solution. The further north you go, the more important this is.
> I've
> gone XC skiing in temperatures colder than -30 degrees on numerous
> occasions
> in
> upstate New York, in Vermont, and in Canada. Brrrr.
>
> 3. Flush the boat's raw cooling water system with a 40% mixture of
> automotive
> antifreeze. I put the antifreeze mixture in a 5 gallon bucket (two gallons
> of
> antifreeze to three gallons of water) then, attaching a length of garden
> hose
> to the raw water pump intake, I run the engine for a minute or so to suck
> it
> into manifold, heat exchanger and waterlift muffler. I've installed a T
> fitting in the intake line after the intake stopcock to make the job
> easier.
> If the
> boat is on stands, collect the discharged antifreeze/water mixture in a
> bucket
> as it emerges from the exhaust or the raw water discharge thru hull. Use
> it
> in the next step.
>
> 4. Flush a gallon of so of the antifreeze mixture through each head. The
> mixture will go into the holding tank where it won't do any harm and may
> prevent
> any residual water from freezing up.
>
> 5. Remove all canned goods and any potables which can freeze. This
> includes
> all wines, juices, sodas, etc. If you don't, you will find a mess when you
> return in the Spring. Be sure to empty the refrigerator and freezer if you
> have
> one. t's a good excuse for a boat leaving party.
>
> 6. Remove all delicate and or expensive portable electronics that you
> can't
> bear to lose or have stolen. Take home digital cameras, binoculars, hand
> held
> GPSs and VHFs, etc. No matter how carefully guarded, boat yards are a
> magnet
> for theft.
>
> 7. If your yard permits, use a battery maintainer to keep batteries in
> good
> condition. My boat yard doesn't permit unattended electrical connections
> in
> winter storage so in past years I've placed a 5 watt battery maintainer
> solar
> cell in a position where it catches a few hours of sunlight every day.
> Even
> during extended periods of snow cover, it works well enough to keep the
> batteries
> in good condition.
>
> 8. Clean the boat so you will be pleasantly surprised in the Spring. Cover
> with tarps or have the boat shrink wrapped. If in the snow belt, New
> Jersey
> north, I prefer the latter. Shrink wrap sheds snow very well and prevents
> water
> intrusion from snow melt.
>
> The whole process took me about 8 hours the first time. Now I can do it in
> about 4 hours because I know what I'm doing. I use about 6 gallons of
> non-toxic
> pink antifreeze and about 4 gallons of automotive antifreeze. I buy it at
> WalMart where it is about half the price as in a marine store. Shrink
> wrapping
> costs about $12 a foot in my area. Expensive, but it is well worth it.
>
> You can have winterizing done by the yard for several hundred dollars but
> it's such an inherently simple job that I'd rather spend the money on a
> few
> gourmet meals and a good bottle of Scotch. Alternately, you can leave the
> boat
> in a
> heated winter storage shed and avoid the winterizing process entirely. But
> that's a good deal more expensive - and there is always the possibility
> that
> the
> shed's heating system will fail. It has happened on more than one
> occasion.
>
> Larry Z
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> **************************************
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