Monday, March 08, 2010

Spring the Boat Loose

With the warm weather this past weekend here in the northeast, many boaters are tempted to break the boat out of its winter confinement and get spring started a little early.

But before you launch your boat for the first time in several months, make sure your vessel is as ready as you are to get back on the water. There are several websites with checklists on how to de-winterize your boat and get it prepared for the new season, so we thought we would direct you to a few of the better guides.

Check out these sites even if you are not doing the work yourself so that you can ensure that your service provider is covering all the major points.

Thanks to Ericka's Powerboating Blog for reminding us this past weekend that if you prepare now, “on that first nice day of spring, you'll be ready to take advantage of the warmer weather and be able to get your boat in the water that much faster.” Ericka also has a more detailed task list to help de-winterize your boat. Read it here.

Alan Sorum’s Boating & Sailing blog has a very good article on how to prep your boat for the spring, broken into three simple sections. One of Alan’s best tips is to “Schedule yard work well in advance and avoid the rush that comes with the first nice spring day.” Remember that Alan boats in Alaska, so if these tips work for getting a boat ready after an Alaskan winter, they should certainly be helpful to those of us in the lower 48. Read Alan's de-winterizing article here.

If you are more of a visual learner, this 2 minute video from Sunbrella walks you through a live checklist of items to clean, prep and check before you launch your boat each year.



What is your spring ritual? Can you recommend any other good de-winterizing guides? When are you launching your boat for the season, or are you lucky enough to live in a year-round boating climate?

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2 comments:

  1. Vincent Pica, DCAPT, Sector Long Island Sound-South, USCGAux08 March, 2010

    here are some more thoughts in line what FirstBoat is saying!

    Summer WILL get here - will the boat be ready? http://bit.ly/ama-summer

    Trailing and Launching the Boat - safely http://bit.ly/ama-trail1 PART 1

    Trailing and Launching the Boat - safely http://bit.ly/ama-trail2 PART 2

    Safety First!

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  2. I also have a blog post on Selling a boat... features a lot of good tips for preparing a boat for sale. I see a lot of people putting their boat on the market without taking any time to prep it. check it out here: http://boaterlife.blogspot.com/2010/01/selling-boat.html

    ReplyDelete