Keep in water for winter?

I have always had a "boat safe" heater in place, however if you put antifreeze thru the system with the thru hull shut off it should not freeze period. The water temp is always warmer than the air temp once you get below the surface.
Still yet if my boat wasn't 45' long and 30,000 lbs i would much rather have it on the hard. Yes we use bubblers to keep from freezing solid, but thats been a while in our location.
I do not under stand making it hard to guarantee since how your boat sits in water. My 44DB sits approx 44" in the water, no way would I risk freezing the QSC's . So I call BS on that.

Pirate Lady said:

The Chief also said my 454 i/o sits low in the boat, much of it below the water line which makes winterizing difficult and hard to guarantee he got it all drained. I don’t know, thats what he said.
Most boats at my marina stay in which prompted me to think about it, but they are mostly inboard big boats.
i will probably pull it, $600 is cheaper than a new engine.

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Obviously others do it successfully, but for $600 bucks you will sleep better ALL winter…..

Have mostly wintered in the water and used bubblers and a bilge safe heater. I winterize everything so the heater is just piece of mind and gives warmth when I’m working in the ER. Bubblers do a great job when we get the freeze that brings in the ice for about 2 weeks. My only concern if you’re not in a covered slip is the wind load on your shrink wrap if you’re exposed. We get killed most years with crazy winds out of the west and the north. To me that’s the most stressful part of winters in the water. Will the shrink wrap hold up. Also most guys won’t wrap in the water as it’s a pia. Also if the ice gets close to the hull it tends to cause the paint at the water line to flake off in chunks. Aside from that it’s nice not going up and down a ladder in the winter and being able to keep a WiFi cam on the boat for checking on things.

I’m in the piece of mind crowd….for $600 bucks I would rather not have the worry….im not a climate alarmist, but we have had some weird weather lately. The deep freeze in Texas for example. Bubblers are great until they don’t work or have a power failure due to that weird weather event.

I found out this morning, $600 on blocks for winter. If i keep water I still need $250 for short haul in spring to power wash and bottom paint. So its really $350 to land store all winter. No brainer. Appreciate all the ideas and replies.
I hauled last year on November 20, so i still have a lot of time to use.

Our yacht club has a strict policy against boats with IOs being stored in the water during the winter. Too much can go wrong when ice and the rubber components of an outdrives interact.

hottoddie said:

Our yacht club has a strict policy against boats with IOs being stored in the water during the winter. Too much can go wrong when ice and the rubber components of an outdrives interact.

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VERY interesting. Thats the same thing the Chief told me. Thx for reply, you confirmed my plan.