Summer and begin have come and gone. Days are short and cold and nights seem to last forever. If you are a boat owner and have not already done so, now is the time to winterize your boat and to get it into boat storage. This article will wage a few tips and tricks for ensuring a innocuous and sound slumber for your watercraft throughout winter while in boat storage. Please read on to learn more about what is required to safely place your boat into boat storage for the winter.
Before putting your costly investment into boat storage for the season, you should always begin with a good checklist of things to do prior to putting the boat “down for the winter”, so to speak. Such boat storage checklists exist all over the world wide web so a swift search should turn up loads of them. Even though most of them are very complete, you should always alter the boat storage checklist that you select with some of your own custom steps or information that is specific to your particular make and model of boat. Be sure to also take into consideration the weather where you live whenever you are planning to place your craft into boat storage for the season.
For example, your boat’s gas tank should always be topped of and oil should always be changed prior to putting it into storage for the year. Electronic devices and batteries should be removed to innocuous storage and not left out in the elements if you are opting for the “driveway” method of boat storage, meaning you simply plan on covering your boat and leaving it on the trailer in your driveway for the winter. Even though this type of outdoor boat storage works for many boat owners, I like indoor boat storage or stacked storage myself. Indoor boat storage simply provides much more endorsement from the elements of nature than does outdoor trailer storage. However, this is a individualized decision so feel free to use whatever type of boat storage that you prefer.
Be sure that you correct and repair any dings, cracks, etc on your boat before putting it into boat storage for the season. It just makes so much more sense to repair these types of issues prior to letting the boat sit in storage for months on end because small problems like this can become larger ones with time. Because of this fact, it is important that you perform fixes of such problems before storing the boat for the season.
Before putting your boat into boat storage for the season, you should always give it a good and thorough cleaning. Failure to give it a good wash before storing it away for several months is like to result in a few foul smelling surprises when it comes time to place it back out on the water a few months later. Going through your boat with a fine tooth comb and cleaning it up prior to putting it into storage is the ideal way to refrain such a mess when you get it out at the beginning of the following season.
How and where you will store your boat is an important decision. My individualized preference is store my boat indoors in a climate controlled storage environment even though it is more expensive. I like this method of boat storage to the others because it affords the boat much more endorsement that simply covering it and leaving it outside in the elements. By keeping the boat indoors, it is completely fortified from anything that nature can throw at it. Just be sure to properly support the hull whenever you decide to dry-store your boat. Failure to properly support he boat’s hull will certainly result in cracked bulkheads, engine misalignment, and other serious distortions that can very easily render your boat useless. This, of course, is never a good thing!
There you have it. This article, I hope, has given you a few very good tips for ensuring a innocuous and sound boat storage season. If you can combine the boat storage tips in this article with just a bit of good old fashioned common sense, you can have your boat out of storage and in the water in no time come next boating season. Just remember to always refer to the individual guide that came with your boat and motor to fill in the details and to ensure they do not require anything special prior to putting them into boat storage for the season.
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