Hello everyone,
I am a new boat owner living aboard a 1984 Mainship that I have recently purchased. Being brand new to almost all aspects of boating, I have been google searching and reading books that I have found on Amazon. Recently, with the changing weather, I have talked to a few folks at the marina here in regards to winterizing and what I need to do in order to be prepared for the cold. Several of them have said "just start the engines every week or two" in regards to keeping things on the up and up.
My boat does seem to run, but I have not started her up in in the 2-3 months that I have been onboard. When I made the purchase, we used a jump box that the previous owner had with them, and we ran the engines for about 30 minutes. I do not own a jump box myself, but as I was looking in to purchasing one, I thought why not just look into new batteries and getting the starting system to work correctly instead. I called a marina today that does repairs and the marina owner told me that this is not something that I should be worrying about right now and that I need to get the boat winterized. I am at a loss and trying to figure out which direction to go with my limited time and resources to get everything ready. I wouldn't mind starting and running the engines every week if that is an option, but I don't want to cause any damage my boat either. If this is completely fine, then it might be nice to move forward and work on getting her going.
To get an idea of the climate, I am in the Washington DC area. I expect that we will see temperatures in the teens or lower for days or weeks at a time. This isn't an extreme climate, but it will get pretty cold. Please let me know what you guys think and what your experiences are living on a boat in these temps!
Thank you,
Joe
I am a new boat owner living aboard a 1984 Mainship that I have recently purchased. Being brand new to almost all aspects of boating, I have been google searching and reading books that I have found on Amazon. Recently, with the changing weather, I have talked to a few folks at the marina here in regards to winterizing and what I need to do in order to be prepared for the cold. Several of them have said "just start the engines every week or two" in regards to keeping things on the up and up.
My boat does seem to run, but I have not started her up in in the 2-3 months that I have been onboard. When I made the purchase, we used a jump box that the previous owner had with them, and we ran the engines for about 30 minutes. I do not own a jump box myself, but as I was looking in to purchasing one, I thought why not just look into new batteries and getting the starting system to work correctly instead. I called a marina today that does repairs and the marina owner told me that this is not something that I should be worrying about right now and that I need to get the boat winterized. I am at a loss and trying to figure out which direction to go with my limited time and resources to get everything ready. I wouldn't mind starting and running the engines every week if that is an option, but I don't want to cause any damage my boat either. If this is completely fine, then it might be nice to move forward and work on getting her going.
To get an idea of the climate, I am in the Washington DC area. I expect that we will see temperatures in the teens or lower for days or weeks at a time. This isn't an extreme climate, but it will get pretty cold. Please let me know what you guys think and what your experiences are living on a boat in these temps!
Thank you,
Joe