Checklist for keeping boat in water year round

Gofirstclass said:
Jeff, The air line is connected to the dock water inlet through a couple of fittings to get from the air hose fitting to a male hose fitting. If you first turn on the water pump and open a couple of faucets that will drain your water tank. Do that while you're setting up the air compressor and getting it hooked up and building pressure. Then turn the water pump back off before you start blowing out the lines. That will save you some time.

Then the air pressure goes through the fresh water tank and is dispersed throughout all the water lines as you open each faucet separately. I open each faucet, one at a time, until only a bit of mist comes out of each faucet. Then I go back and do that again with each faucet.

Now items of caution:
1. Make sure your air compressor is set to only about 20-25 pounds of pressure. You don't want it higher than that because it could blow apart a water connection.
2. Don't forget the little used faucets like the anchor washdown and the transom shower.
3. If you drape a dish towel or similar size towel over each of the faucets as you blow them out, that will keep the water from spurting out and getting on the floor, counter tops, etc.

Have fun!
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Awesome, that you for the detailed information. That helps out a lot. I will be sure to follow these steps this fall/early winter!
 
Little Ducky said:
I try to use my boat all year long but I still winterize the toilet, fresh water system and the HVAC. With these systems winterized there's just less to worry about. I still use the toilet but I just keep a few gallon jugs of water in the bathroom for flushing..... and then before leaving the boat again I flush and leave some antifreeze in the toilet.

The bilge has a bilge safe heater and for the cabin I use a small space heater (true north cabin heater) that has a freeze setting and when I'm onboard it keeps the cabin nice and toasty.

Since the marina has WiFi I have a few temp sensors in and around the boat to monitor the temps and I can pull it up on my cell phone once in a while.
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That is a good call on the jugs of water for the toilet. I can live without running water for winter months but the wife wouldn't be happy without the toilet working, so that is a great solution. I wish my marina had wifi on the dock. I would do the same thing with temp gauges and wifi outlets etc. Maybe someday they will get it.
 
Jeff Fabiani said:
That is a good call on the jugs of water for the toilet. I can live without running water for winter months but the wife wouldn't be happy without the toilet working, so that is a great solution. I wish my marina had wifi on the dock. I would do the same thing with temp gauges and wifi outlets etc. Maybe someday they will get it.
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We have no wifi at our dock but we do have cell service so our SimpliSafe alarm is cellular based. I have door switches,motion detectors, power, water, smoke, freeze, CO alarms all set up on it. I can check the status anytime, anywhere... And that really does help me to sleep soundly at night.
 
I ended up purchasing an air compressor and found a blow out plug on amazon that connects to the compressor hose. I blew out the lines in the boat, worked great. Regarding the hot water lines, since the air doesn't hit those lines, what is the best way to drain them? I see the water heater has a drain valve on it, but i imagine this just drains the water inside the heater, not the lines?
 
Jeff Fabiani said:
I ended up purchasing an air compressor and found a blow out plug on amazon that connects to the compressor hose. I blew out the lines in the boat, worked great. Regarding the hot water lines, since the air doesn't hit those lines, what is the best way to drain them? I see the water heater has a drain valve on it, but i imagine this just drains the water inside the heater, not the lines?
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With the air on, you could close the cold water taps and open the galley faucet to HW. It won't drain everything, but enough to leave air on the top of the tank for expansion. And when you leave the boat, you would leave the hot water faucets open to the hot, so that if there is a freeze, the remaining 'hot' water has a place to go.
My boat is also in Tacoma, and I don't empty the water tank, nor winterize. The water temp is warmer than 50 degrees on the coldest of days. My boat has twin outdrives, and sitting in that 50 degree heat sink, they protect the engine and have not been a problem.
And, our marina is Foss Harbor, which has pretty reliable power even in the worst of storms. But, I do remove the transom shower, and leave the bathroom door open and the galley cabinet open when I leave the boat during the winter.
 
@Tacoma290 Thanks for the info. I will try closing the cold water taps and open the hot water taps with the air blowing. Since i have a bilge heater i am not draining the water tank, and likely don't need to drain the hot water tank either, however just wanted to make sure the hot water lines were drained.

We have our boat at Narrows and am hoping the power there is reliable during the winter storms.
 
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