What do you do with your dinghy and kicker motor in winter?

Curious how many of you take the dinghy off the boat and store it away for the winter assuming you don't plan to use it much? I plan on using the boat in the winter but not sure how much I'll use the dinghy. Do you leave the dinghy and motor on the boat year-round exposed to the elements? Pacific Northwest.

Unheated but inside storage, dingy and motor. I never have bothered to put stabilizer in the gas tank either. Never seemed to make any difference, still starts right up in the spring, although I know others will disagree.

What size of engine?
What size and type of dingy?

Sun is the killer for an inflatable.
Wash, deflate slightly and store dry, away from sun

Salt and ethenal are trouble for outboards.
I run mine out of fuel in fresh water. Not only flush’s salt out, but drains the carb. While you “may” be lucky enough to not have your carb gum up during down time...this is too easy to do and then you know it won’t.

Your boat....your choices ?

Mine gets pulled up on our dock, drained and wrapped in a heavy duty tarp. In the spring I unwrap, adjust the inflation and slide it back in the water.

Winter?

What's that?

menzies said:

Winter?

What's that?

Click to expand...

When the snowbirds show up.

I have a flip-up hard dinghy on the swim step. I run the gas out of the 9.9 Yamaha and forget about it til spring.

Ken E
What do you use for davits,
I have a `12 Lund, and am trying to figure out a way
to bring it along
Thanks

10.5 Rib with 20 Suzuki, put on small trailer and bring home, change oil and lower unit oil , cover with canvas cover over a little wood frame I made up. That's it.

I bring it home and put it in the basement. It's a rollup. Haven't used the O/B in years. It's down there too. Somewhere.

ctbarbarian said:

Ken E
What do you use for davits,
I have a `12 Lund, and am trying to figure out a way
to bring it along
Thanks

Click to expand...

Weaver brackets work well...Check out Drifter's set-up in the Dingy section:

I uses these with my inflatable as well..

https://boathealer.wixsite.com/americantugforsale/gallery

I have a RIB on a Seawise davit so it does tip up easily on end on my swimstep. 9.9 Honda.

I have 2 dinghy's - one stays on the boat and one stays at the marina to get to/from our mooring. The dinghy on the boat stays there during the winter but the motor comes home, gets maintenance and is stored indoors. The dinghy that is normally in the water comes home, it and its motor get any needed maintenance and both are stored indoors.

Ken

During the summer cruising season, the dink and motor live on the swimstep and transom OB motor bracket. In winter fishing season, the dink moves to the bow inverted on foam chocks and the motor gets covered on its transom bracket. Since I'm in a covered slip, excessive UV and rain are not an issue.

This way, both remain available for use if needed and neither get in the way of having seasonal fun.

Our dink stays on board in davits on the aft deck with a UV proof cover over both it and the motor. We do drain the fuel system on the motor and add stabilizer to the tank.

Do you use a regular outboard motor cover? I understand you might not want to cover the outboard as you need to let the cowling breathe. With a cover you are trapping moisture and making matters worse?

Our cover comes down over the sides of the dinghy but is not air tight. Where it goes over the motor, there is a lot of air circulation. Think of a poncho, loose enough at the bottom to allow air flow, but comes down enough to shade everything. We haven't had any problems with wind blowing rain under the cover during any storms so far..

ctbarbarian said:

Ken E
What do you use for davits,
I have a `12 Lund, and am trying to figure out a way
to bring it along
Thanks

Click to expand...

I use Weaver snap davits. www.weaverindustries.com. I've been very happy with them. Weaver's stainless steel products are top notch.

I was going to do something very similar to this on my setup... 6x10 tarp with bungees.

My inflatable in in the bag hanging from the ceiling in the garage. The hard dinghy is on a rack in the back yard covered with a tarp. The motor is in the garage. I don't add stabilized to the fuel tank because I don't think electrons go bad.

TDunn said:

... I don't add stabilized to the fuel tank because I don't think electrons go bad.

Click to expand...

Ha! Well, hydrocarbon molecules fall apart I suppose but I don't do stabilizer either. Lawn mowers, power washer, chain saw, leaf blower, outboard motor, they all start up for me okay in the spring after five months asleep. But others swear by it I know.

I keep my hypalon dink on the swim platform under a stamoid cover. It keeps the sun off, but man, the mildew is awful, it comes up in just a couple weeks.

There is pretty good airflow under the cover, I'm not sure how I would add more.

I've thought about using a mildew inhibitor spray. Anybody tried that?

Wifey B: Don't believe in winter.

We keep our RIB's in normal position and covered. I was wondering why people were talking sun damage and not using cover. However, now see dougcole's post.

We're not having the problem as you describe even on the one we have on the swim platform. Materials are important and I do know natural materials are lousy for mildew and polyesters and acrylics much better. I know Stamoid is a vinyl coated polyester and claims to be mildew resistant but don't know. Here's a cool listing of the various fabrics. We use Sunbrella which is an Acrylic.

Best Boat Cover Material Discussion!

Now something you may not have although the Stamoid people have them on their site. That's a boat vent. Here's the Boat Vent II

Sailrite - Fabric, Canvas, and Sewing Machines Since 1969

They have a sewable one too.

Sailrite - Fabric, Canvas, and Sewing Machines Since 1969

I know a lot of people don't have poles under their dinghy cover. These require poles. If you don't have the vents, I'd talk to Sailrite about it.

I recently discovered the Weaver snap davits are responsible for breaking the Port swimstep support bracket. As a result I’m shopping for St Croix type davits.

Be sure to drain carbeurator and start with new gas in the spring. Mine hangs off davit, 11ft whaler with 15hp 4 stroke Honda. Dole fin helps stability and reduces porposing.