Winterization Notes and Lessons Learned, 03 420DA

Skip

Well-Known Member
Oct 5, 2006
1,085
Potomac River/Chesapeake Bay
Boat Info
07 58 DB
Truly Blessed IV

2010 Nautica 12' RIB, 40HP Yamaha
Engines
MAN CRM 900s
I wanted to take a moment to summarize the winterization of Truly Blessed II. Not sure I have any great insights, but here goes…and I apologize for the long post. First, my checklist:
Winterize the Boat
Fresh water system

Purge water from lines
Bow anchor wash down
Master stateroom sink, toilet, shower
Galley sink and sprayer
Guest stateroom sink, toilet, shower
Cockpit wetbar sink
Ice maker
Engine room wash down
Hot water heater and hot water lines
Transom shower
Transom wash down inside trunk
Air conditioners
Purge fresh water from lines
Fill lines and compressors with antifreeze
Clean a/c filters
Toilets and holding tank
Fill sewer lines with antifreeze
Empty holding tank and fill (partial) with antifreeze
Onan Generator
Change oil and filter
Remove impeller
Drain all water from cooling system
Fill with anti freeze
Change zinc in heat exchanger
Cummins Diesels
Change oil and filters
Change RACOR elements
Change primary diesel filters
Change coolant filters
Change zincs in aftercoolers
Clean AIRSEP elements
Drain all water from cooling system and fill with antifreeze
Remove impellers
Spot paint rust on engines
Boat exterior
Wash boat
Wax boat
Tighten fittings and fasteners
Re-caulk seams as required
Clean all stainless steel
Inspect and adjust life line tension
Inspect windlass and tighten clutch
Inspect all running lights and change bulbs as required
Inspect and tighten radar connections
Boat interior
Clean carpets
Wash and replace carpet runners
Defrost and clean refrigerator and freezer
Clean out microwave
Clean out cabinets (all)
Unpack unnecessary gear
Clean shower sump
Inspect bilge pump operation
Engine room
Tighten all hose clamps and replace as needed
Re-seal forward bilge pump screws
Canvas
Remove and clean all isenglass
Remove and clean all canvas
Remove and bring home to clean all carpet
Replace missing snaps
Lubricate zippers
Sub contract repair of port side canvas runner
Sub contract repair of helm cover
Shrink Wrap Boat


Lessons I learned:

The Jabsco 12V flat tank Oil Pump Out System I bought worked really well ($129) It took about 30 minutes or so to pump the 5 quarts of 30 weight out of each of the ZF 280 Series IV transmissions. The 12V clips on the Jabsco unit were not long enough to reach the batteries on the boat, so I bought an inexpensive deep cycle battery from Wal Mart and used it to power the Jabsco pump. Worked great. My only challenge with the trannies was the filter caps: they require a 36MM socket to remove. I did not have one, nor could I find one locally. Lowes and Home Depot were no help…so I refilled the trannies with fresh oil and will clean the filters in the spring. In the meantime, for $45, I got a metric socket set from Harbor Freight Tools online, which has 22-40MM sockets and ½ ratchet, ratchet extension, and breaker bar. Not first quality tools, but more than adequate to the job. I should have had the right tool before I started, but I assumed that an adjustable wrench would get it done. Not so. These filter caps are in a tight spot and you require the right tool.
I cleaned the Jabsco unit out with warm soapy water and the intake hose and tank all look clean..so I assume the pump is good to go as well.

The reverso oil change system Sea Ray installs is a great, great piece of gear. It took no time at all to change oil in the mains and generator.

I failed to buy a water heater bypass, so I used an extra 8-10 gallons of RV antifreeze on my freshwater system. I plan to recycle the pink stuff, and buy a bypass next season.

I used the K&N air filter cleaner and oil, and the filters on the Airseps look brand new.

I winterized the Onan gen set and the mains by using a thoroflush cap and running a mix of -100 and -50 RV antifreeze through the entire raw water side. Same for the A/C systems. On each I made sure that pink stuff was present from the sea cock forward in the system. Once all were winterized I used tie-wraps on each sea cock to verify that they are properly and completely closed

I found yet another use for the Porter Cable 7424. The isinglass panels were a bit dirty, so after I cleaned them with fresh water I let them dry, then used Meguiar’s Clear Plastic cleaner on a soft foam buffing pad on the Porter Cable. I set the unit to speed setting 2 and away I went—and the isinglass cleaned up really, really well. I followed this with a hand application of Meguair’s clear plastic polish and my isinglass will easily get me through another couple seasons. Once complete I hung all my isenglass and sunbrella panels on 2 x 4s affixed to my basement ceiling joists--I screwed buttons into the 2 x 4s and buttoned the isenglass and sunbrella panels up in approximately the same orientation that they hang on the boat.

I put my wife’s new high capacity (and far too expensive IMO) clothes washer to good use as well. I washed all the Sunbrella on the hand-wash delicates cold water setting, let it hang over a basement couch to dry, then treated all pieces with 303 Fabric treatment. Did the same to the cockpit snap in carpet (except for the big piece, which I had to use my hoover steam cleaner on)
The sunbrella and carpets both look great. I’ll have to do the fastback enclosure by hand, but all other pieces, including the fore and aft biminis, cleaned up really well, and took the 303 application very well.
I was really blessed with the weather. The day I winterized I had a buddy along who waxed the boat down to the rubrail, in 65 degree sunny weather. A week later I washed the boat and just as I was getting off the last black streak the shrink wrap guy arrived..so she got wrapped clean. My shrink wrap guy did a great job. He ran a line between my stern cleats and shrink wrapped forward of the line—so I can access my platform safely on snow/icey days and also raise my engine hatch enough to get into the engine room—very important to me.

I learned a lot and feel like the boat was winterized properly. It was a two advil day each time, but to ease the pain I downloaded my local dealer’s winterization rates for 2006. A sample:

Winterize twin diesel engines (Oil, filter, fuel filters) $2200 (does not include transmissions)
Winterize Generator: $250
Winterize A/C: $100 per unit
Winterize Marine Toilets: $50 per unit
Winterize ice maker: $50 per unit
Winterize windshield washer: $50
Shrink wrap: $20/Foot.

All told, I spent under $1K, including shrink wrap and all materials—oil, oil filters, primary and secondary diesel filters, etc. To have the dealer do it would have been nearly $5K. The $4K savings goes a long way towards the '07 fuel budget.

Thanks as always to Frank W, Dancin Dave, OSD9, Impulse III, and Chris M for advice and encouragement. This was my first time ever winterizing a big boat, and while a far cry from the 22’ Supra inboard I used to winterize myself, it was both fun and gratifying work.

regards
Skip
 
Skip...nice summary....

One comment....I am not sure of the HWH on the 420DA, but on my 380DA, there is a temperature regulator valve on the Hot side which mixes cold with the hot to adjust the temperature. This setup doesn't allow for use of the typical bypass kit sold in the marine stores.

Below is picture of what I do on my 380DA to bypass the HWH....I use one TEE and two ELBOWS and some 15MM tubing......in the picture below, the long piece of tubing to the top right has an elbow on the end which the RED hot supply side is attached...


later
 

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Very nice summary Skip! One thing I learned this year is that 18 gallons of pink antifreeze weighs a lot. I also learned that pouring 18 gallons of antifreeze into my fresh water holding tank (in the cold) takes longer than I imagined. Perhaps next year I'll bypass the hot water heater to reduce the amount of anifreeze required.
 
Thunderbird,
You are absolutely right on the weight of that stuff. I ended up using a hand truck to get all the winterization stuff to the boat: 3 cases of oil, 4 cases of antifreeze, plus another box of filters (the cummins oil filters are the size of a 105MM howtizer round) and miscellaneous supplies, plus my big plastic tote with the porter cable, all the cleaning supplies, the rotary polisher, etc. Were it not for the hand truck it woud have been an all day job just getting stuff to the boat...then the retrograde movement with 5 gallon gas cans full of waste oil etc. also required the hand truck again. All good fun.

Skip
 
OSD9, that is a really nice bypass job. I will get into my bilge over the weekend (honey do list permitting) and see if a similar configuration will work on the 420. Thanks for posting the picture as well...precisely why this (as was SRO) is such a good forum.

Skip
 
Skip -
Thanks for the reminder on the impellers. I took my 420 out of the water Dec 1st and haven't done that yet... I will make a big note to do that this weekend. I washed it last weekend...and now also have to start waxing. But I think this weekend will be impellers and then also an oil change.... Talked with my Cummins guy - he suggested I wait on the fuel filters till spring - I have about a 1/2 tank of diesel left and said run that out - then when I fill up - put in new filters - made sense to me...
 
I take the opposite approach...I top off my tanks and shock with biocide on the last run of the year. With clean tanks I don't think putting clean racors in for winterization is an issue; but I certainly see the counter argument about waiting until re-commissioning. I tried to front load all this work so come March I can cut shrink wrap, re-install isenglass and canvas, open the seacocks, and go. I am going to try to haul her every other year. Since I am in fresh water and have very little bottom growth on new (March 06) bottom paint we will see how it goes.

regards
Skip
 
Skip -
My problem was - no diesel docks left open - I didn't come out till December!! Maybe could have topped it off - but, I just wasn't comfortable leaving a full tank of fuel in all winter... It is inside heated though... So, that is how I can do a little work each weekend!!
 
Skip,
U did remove ur impellers ? I know the cummins rep said to do it too.....

Humm.......

To late now .. we be wrapped...

Guess we will see...

Did u serivce ur after cooler ? They say ot do it with in the first 2 years .... otherwise its real pain ..


Rob
 
Rob,
My impellers are now two years old with 254 hours on them (best guess) so I plan to go with new impellers in the spring. Because of that, I elected not to pull them out.

The Cummins Tech took a look at my aftercoolers when I took delivery and pronounced them fine. I will have them checked again this year.

My spring 2007 Preventive Maintenance on my mains is as follows:
--Cummins 12 month service, plus:
-New impellers
-Flush and fill the cooling system (gen set as well)
-Replace Port T-Stats (stbd done in April 06)
-I also have a very slight oil leak at the oil feed line for the port turbo. I will have Cummins fix that while they are on the boat
-I have alternator output fluctuation on the port engine when the engine is cold--from 12-14 volts output and the needle fluctuates pretty rapidly. I will either pull the alternator and get it bench tested/repaired myself with appropriate marine components, or have Cummins do it. Totally depends on how much my job intereferes with my boating hobby this spring.

-Then light the fires and burn some diesel for the next 7 months or so!

regards
Skip
 

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