South Enough to Avoid Winterizing the Boat?

I am currently winterizing my IG32 at Green Turtle Bay. Since Seasoned was in the Everglades for the past 2 or more decades, she doesn’t like the “pink stuff.” The Marina is now blowing out the dock water lines. Welcome to Winter

Winterization in NC

I am in the Morehead City, NC area. My winterization consists of hanging a 100 watt lightbulb in the engine room. And only because it gets cold for about 2 weeks in January. Of course, this is with the boat in the water.

sascudder said:

I am in the Morehead City, NC area.

Click to expand...

We will likely spend this winter in MHC too. Water is warmer and more saline than up in NB. Last winter we had a 3” sheet of ice around boat but the oil filled heaters did their job ;-)

Winterizing

We are in Eastern Tennessee and winterize in the water from December to mid March. Most of the time it is a wasted exercise but there are times when it stays in the single digits for several days and it is worth every penny. Do main engine, generator, fresh water, air conditioning, heads, wash down pumps. Some boats at our marina leave their heating system on over the winter but my feeling is that this is taking a big risk since there can be power outages at the worst time not to mention the risk of a hose problem and pumping the boat full of water.

I lived in the vicinity of Cumberland Island, Ga. back in the 70's/80's. One year we had the air temp stay below freezing for more than 24 hours.
Didn't hurt my outboard powered boat but I had to buy a new pump for the well at the house.
Unpredictable stuff, weather.

Winterize. We lived in Pensacola Florida and one winter had 3 days were temps remained below freezing. We had 1-2" of ice on our canal. So, understand that was rare but it can happen. Many busted pipes etc. If you are there you put heat in the boat but understand in the south there are more ice storms that knock out power. If you are there you can run genset and or engine to warm up the boat if not ... you are taking a risk with severe potential consequencez albeit low probabilities. Just winterize, cheap and eliminates any risk.

A couple years back many of the dock water lines at Brunswick Landing Marina in Brunswick, Ga froze and broke.

Sure engine room stuff that far south is usually safe but any water faucets, showers,vetc that penetrate the hull or are above decks can also freeze in a long, hard overnight freezes.