Near Charlotte, NC, we faced the same dilemma. People who kept their boats at marinas and in dry storage would regularly refuse winterization as "they'd never done it." Then one winter, there would be dozens of destroyed engines. Now, I'm not a proponent of winterization as I used year round. But I am a proponent of alternative protection. If you have electric and heaters running then that works, but then you must have alarms for loss of power. If you live on the boat or by the boat then you can always monitor things, but, if not, then you need someone to do so and it needs to be paid as that's the only way you have recourse if they fail to do the job. Or otherwise, extremely trustworthy. But not just the neighbor at the dock. They may find themselves sick or hospitalized and your protection is gone. Regardless, I'd still have temperatures available remotely so I could check what was going on at any time. Easy enough to have cameras aimed at thermometers if nothing else.
Freezes hit New Bern about as often as destructive storms do. Rare, but must be prepared in case. All my years in NC, I never winterized, but I always took precautions and checked regularly. Even before I was old enough to drive, I'd have my parents drive me to the marina after school when there were freeze warnings and I'd check the heater and wrapping and temperature (before cams and all the convenient monitoring of today). On an I/O, I'd often run the boat for a while and then drain the water from the engine again, always had petcocks to do so. I sadly remember the one year that in spite of notices and advice, 15 boats in dry storage froze (obviously not heated dry storage) at one marina. Only time I remember a problem, but enough to scare me.
