More Season Ending

The weather has been gorgeous at times, but when Friday came to finally haul out the boat it was windy and rainy again.  None-the-less winter is coming, so the crew perservered and we were out by 10:30 Friday morning. 

Rolling inland



Setting the cradle

Ready for transport

Once a boat is out of the water the bottom is pressure washed to remove slime.  Normally a boat is moved by the travel lift to a designated spot and set on its cradle for the winter.  In our case storage is inside across the river and about three miles by highway.  Therefore she is set on her cradle in the middle of the yard awaiting the lift truck to remove her to inside storage.  That is why the cradle is set on wooden blocks.  The U shaped trailer backs in from the bow.  Steel cross beams are set under the cradle.  Those beams are then hydraulically lifted by the trailer and the cradle and boat are lifted about six inches off the ground.  The truck and trailer proceed to inside storage where the process is reversed.

Before moving I needed to winterize the engine.  This is a relatively simple process that frightens many boat owners.  Frightening because failure to do it properly means replacement of a very expensive engine.  It helps to understand that a boat engine cools itself by taking in water and expelling it.  When you remove the boat from the lake some cooling water remains inside the engine.  This must be removed so that freezing of the water and expansion of the resulting ice does not occur inside the engine.  Such freezing will crack the block of the engine.

To winterize I normally fill a pail with two gallons of non-toxic antifreeze solution and set it on the salon floor in front of the engine.  I then remove the engine cooling water hose from the thru-hull (where water enters the boat when it is in the water) and place it in the pail.  I then run the engine long enough to suck the two gallons from the pail and then shut the engine down.  That normally takes about 10-15 seconds and by then antifreeze is spewing out the aft end of the boat having replaced any water that remained inside the engine as well as the muffler and exhaust hose.

Winterized and ready to travel