Boat Storage

6
Mar

Posted by admin

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Boat Storage

Soon boat owners will be able to close the door to their boat storage and enjoy another season cruising around on the open water with the wind blowing in their hair. However, your water craft has been sitting in boat storage for a few months and a boat needs to be prepared before it touches water again. Hopefully, you took proper winterization steps to prepare it for boat storage. If you did, it will get your boat in the water a lot faster. Here are some boat storage exit checklist items to safely prepare your boat for the water.

Before you begin anything, check the battery. A battery resting in boat storage for a few months can lose juice. So, while you are doing everything else, put the battery on a charger. It should be fully charged when you are done preparing the rest of the checklist items.

If it was not done last fall when you put the craft in boat storage, change the fuel filter. The boat also should have been filled with gas before it went into boat storage. If it was not, then fill it up and add a stabilizer before you start the engine. This will absorb any moister that developed over the winter storage.

Also, if it was not done prior to boat storage, change the engine oil and oil filter. It is best to start the engine and let it idle for a few minutes to warm up the oil. Warm oil drains better and takes contaminants with it. Besides that, you should know how to change the oil on your boat by now. If not, hire a marine mechanic. Another thing that should have been done before your water craft went into boat storage is changing the lubricant to the outdrive or transmission. If you did not complete that then, do it now or hire a professional to do it for you.

Before and after boat storage you want to lubricate all grease fittings. Normally, there are grease fittings located on the steering arm, shift and throttle linkages and outdrive pivot points. Follow the manufacturer recommendations on lubricating these fittings. Your owners manual should have it listed.

Perhaps the most important step upon taking your water craft out of boat storage is reinstalling the drain plugs. When you put your boat in the water and you start to feel that sinking feeling that is not your stomach. You are actually sinking because you forgot to put the drain plugs back in. There are a number of other consequences for forgetting to install the drain plugs after boat storage which include losing your boat and embarrassment. Now, if you did not take out the drain plugs prior to boat storage, then you might have to remove them anyway to let the water out. Water can still get into your boat even if it is covered. Some boat covers have leaks, some create and trap in moister. So if the plugs are in, you may have to pull them out. Just make sure you put them back in.

At last, take the battery off the charger and reinstall it on the boat. If you put your water craft in boat storage properly, it should start right up. If may blow some black smoke out of the exhaust at first, but then it should run smoothly.

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