Boat storage over the winter

[Andrewsdad]

This year, I bought a used Crestliner 1850 with a 115 Johnson. I have to store it outside and am worried about winterizing it. I just checked with a local marina and they will do the motor for $85 and shrink wrap it for $170. There must be a better way. What I plan on doing is draining the lower unit of all it's oil and refilling. I am going to add Stabil to the gas and then run the motor until is smokes. Then I am going to take off the cover, take out the spark plugs and spray it with that engine fog stuff. What else do I need to do with the motor? Once I am done with the motor I am going to take out the batteris and the depth finder.

I think all the water is out of the boat but just to be safe, I thought I would pour some RV antifreeze down the live well drains.

And now, what to do about covering it? Spending $170 to shrinkwrap sounds like a lot. Would I be ok leaving the canvas cover on and then covering it again with a tarp? Any other suggestions?

This is a lot different than my little 14' that I could just take off the motor and stick it in my basement.

[Fisher Dave]

If your canvas cover is properly anchored and there are no *valleys* it should be fine. If your cover is old you can spray it with some silicone spray (camp dry, etc) to be sure its water tight and it will make your canvas last longer anyways. THere is no point of shrink rapping if you have a good cover.

For winterizing your motor .. Rick recently put a post up describing in good detail what should be done on your motor... The name of the post escapes me but it was something like *dont put your boat away yet but ...*

If you do a little searching you should find it easily.

[Steve Bakken]

If you do have valleys in your canvas, one thing we use in the shop to correct this is to put bows in the boat. These are wooden strips about 3/8 inch thick by about 2 inches wide that are a little bit wider than the interior of your boat. They usually come in sets of 4 or 5 depending on the length of the boat and they fit in little brackets that mount on the inside of your gunwhales. Since they are a little bit too long, they "bow" up when you install them, which holds the canvas up like a tent and all the rain and snow just runs right off.

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Steve @ Bakken's Boat Shop www.bakkensboatshop.com

[Guest]

Don't forget to fog the carbs too! (I have the same motor.) Run the engine for awhile and let it warm up. Take the hood off the motor, on the front of engine there is a black plastic cover (air box) over the carb intakes. There are about 4-6 rubber straps holding the cover one, and take those off and pull the cover off.

While the engine is running spray lots of fogging oil directly into the 4 carb intakes simutaniously until the motor dies completely. You have to act fast so all the carbs suck in a good amount of oil and not let it pass through.

Carefully put the air box back on and make sure it's properly aligned and tight.

I simply put a cover over the boat and a tarp on top of that all winter. Clean the snow off once in awhile over the winter.