What happens if i don't winterize my boat

What happens if i don't winterize my boat

If you live in an area where temperatures drop below freezing and your boat is more sophisticated than a dinghy, you should prepare it for winter. Failure to prepare for winter can cost you money and time in the form of avoidable repairs and cause you to miss the start of the boating season. You need to learn from these mistakes.

If you don't prepare your boat for winter, the following can happen: water freezes and expands, which can damage anything trapped inside. To do this, water can enter unprotected spaces. Acidic and corrosive residues, salt deposits and corrosion can damage sensitive engine components. Fuel decomposes or becomes contaminated. Mold takes root and by spring you can have a boat unusable again due to multiple system failures.

Anything can go wrong in any system, and most of it is due to water freezing where it shouldn't. We will explain each of these potential complications in more detail below.

Winterizing includes most of the following, although the exact list depends on your boat and there may be other tasks.

Drain all water-carrying parts, from pipes and tanks to engine blocks and cooling systems.

Flush everything that comes in contact with salt water.

Add non-toxic antifreeze to any areas containing water, including pipes, toilets, fittings, engines and boat bottoms.

Change the engine oil and spray the engine with oil.

Empty the fuel tank and/or use a stabilizer.

Fill with diesel fuel and apply antimicrobial stabilizer.

Disconnect and charge batteries (lead acid batteries) or discharge to 50% (lithium iron phosphate ~4~).

Cover the boat or bring it indoors.

What could go wrong with all this?

Your engine

Cracks and breaks

Raw, freshwater-cooled engines without drained seawater pipes can crack from the heat exchanger to the engine block. The salt water will freeze and expand internally despite the low temperature. If you are lucky, it will only crack or tear the hose support; at worst, it will destroy the engine.

A freshwater-cooled engine with insufficient antifreeze can also freeze and crack. The risk is even greater if cooled only with water; a mixture of antifreeze and water can prevent this.

Corrosion and contamination

Dirty oil contains acidic contaminants, and salt can cause some corrosion problems. Unchanged oil and an unflushed engine do not cause immediate engine failure, but they can cause damage, shorten engine life, or reduce engine performance. Engine flushing and misting can reduce these risks.

Mechanical systems that come in contact with corrosive waste products and dirt can be affected. Even if you keep your boat in a heated garage in winter, lack of engine movement can cause deposits and problems if the oil is not changed and the engine is not flushed.

Fuel problems

Over time, gasoline breaks down as compounds of different weights separate and evaporate. If you have ethanol in the fuel, it will absorb moisture if it settles during the winter. Unstable fuel can cause stickiness, deposits, engine seizure and difficulty starting and running.

Diesel fuel has other dangers: algae can grow in it, causing clogged filters and injectors. Contaminated filters can grow and become clogged. Nearly empty or half-full tanks are more prone to biological growth than tanks filled with biological fuel.

Plumbing

Water in hoses causes pipes to burst, and water in shower and sink faucets causes faucets to crack and deteriorate in winter. Pumps that are not kept dry can break down when they freeze, or if they run in freezing weather. Tanks that are not drained can freeze and swell, and tanks can dry out and solidify in winter.

Hot water tanks and heat exchangers that are not winterized run the same risk of water swelling and cracking of the tank and heating elements. Sealed fittings can freeze and crack.

One fall I was preparing my freshwater system for winter, but I did not put antifreeze in any of the showers on my boat. I cleaned the sink but forgot about the shower. The expensive and hard to find Swedish faucet would shut off in winter because I couldn't get all the fresh water out of the shower.

Taps

Lead Acid

Batteries are an area of risk that is often overlooked when preparing for winter. Lead-acid batteries, such as wet-cell, AGM and gel batteries, discharge themselves over time. Batteries that are not fully charged at the beginning of winter may fully discharge before spring, which can affect their service life.

Battery chemistry causes the freezing point of a charged battery to be much lower than that of a discharged battery. A discharged battery will freeze at a temperature slightly below that of water. Even if the battery casing does not rupture, freezing can damage the lead plates inside, destroying the battery or reducing its life or capacity. Flooded batteries are most at risk, but any lead-acid battery can freeze.

Failure to disconnect all charges from the battery will cause it to discharge, and leaving a discharged lead-acid battery in cold storage will undoubtedly cause damage.

Lithium

Lithium-iron-phosphate (LiFePO~4~) batteries have different storage problems than lead-acid batteries in that they must be stored at 50% discharge when all loads are disconnected. Storage of fully charged or discharged LiFePO4 batteries can affect their service life and long-term rechargeability.

Although LiFePO~4~ batteries do not freeze like lead-acid batteries, their performance degrades at low temperatures and charging LiFePO~4~ batteries below 0°C (32°F) can damage them.

Roof fittings and accessories

On board, water leaks everywhere. On an open boat with accumulated ice and snow on deck, water can seep into deck fittings, chandeliers and other areas exposed to the air. At the risk of sounding repetitive, water entering an enclosed space and freezing can cause damage to the expansion.

Cracks can appear in the roof area around the building and water can seep under and behind enlarged openings and cracks. Water can penetrate windows, between window seals or between windows and shells, causing damage and further leakage.

Mold and fouling

Moisture accumulates in unventilated boats, leading to mold and rot. If the boat is left unattended and sealed during the off-season, it can become a source of mold and odors come spring. Although the mechanical risk to the system is low, upholstery, curtains, boat covers and sails can easily become trapped by moisture.

In winter, dirt can accumulate on bare boats. If you are unlucky enough to camp near trees, you may encounter brown spots, dirt and rotting leaf-filled cabins, as well as dirty decks in the spring. Even without trees, air pollutants and rainwater accumulation in the atmosphere can leave dirt and stains on boats that are not covered in winter.

Frozen bilges

Frozen bilges can sink a boat if enough water remains at the end of the season. If hull penetrations are in the water and the water freezes, they can crack or become damaged, which can scare below the waterline. If your boat has a hull penetration cover, ice in the bilge can strain or break it.

Bilge pumps do not work well in freezing water. If they operate in freezing conditions they can be easily damaged, the expansion and compression forces of the water can crack the casing or damage the pump mechanism.

Avoiding a spring disaster

This is a list of what can happen, rather than what will happen, if winterizing is not carried out. Your boat is a complex machine and in cold weather many things can go wrong very quickly if you are not careful, but you can also get very lucky.

Check everything thoroughly in the spring. You can't tell if anything has frozen and thawed, but you can see obvious damage. If it hasn't winterized yet, it will be a surprise when it does. I found a broken shower faucet in the spring when I turned on the water pressure to flush the system and water started splashing in front of my head.

If you think you've forgotten to prepare something for winter, check it thoroughly before you use it.

Better yet, make a good emergency checklist and get someone to do the jobs you're not sure about. An ounce of prevention is cheaper than a few pounds of spring treatment when it comes to winterizing.