Leaving the boat for 3 months

lanerboy

lanerboy

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Hi All

We go to Spain for 3 months over winter and I'm wondering what to do with my boat on the south coast.

Do I leave it plugged in with a dehumidifier running into the sink or do I unplug the electric hook up turn all the batteries off and just leave it for 3 months then I won't have any worries of anything going wrong with electric supplies, battery chargers etc etc

What do other people do
 
lanerboy said:
Hi All

We go to Spain for 3 months over winter and I'm wondering what to do with my boat on the south coast.

Do I leave it plugged in with a dehumidifier running into the sink or do I unplug the electric hook up turn all the batteries off and just leave it for 3 months then I won't have any worries of anything going wrong with electric supplies, battery chargers etc etc

What do other people do
Click to expand...
She will be better off in the water than on the hard. However, you will need to drain the domestic water, and ensure the calofifier is empty. If you have a transom shower, take the shower head off. You will need to run a dehumidifier and heaters as Sticky Fingers states. On our marina, I get a notification on an App if the power is disrupted. I can then reconnect remotely. Is there anyone who can check your boat regularly? Especially if there is a cold snap?
 
Sticky Fingers said:
Agree with this. Although I left my water tank full. A ton of water isn’t going to freeze.
Click to expand...
Probably not

But its not the ton of water that is most likely to cause a problem.
Over the years I have lost three shower heads which was tiny amounts of water that I obviously failed to drain out .
 
Momac said:
Probably not

But its not the ton of water that is most likely to cause a problem.
Over the years I have lost three shower heads which was tiny amounts of water that I obviously failed to drain out .
Click to expand...
Yes the shower heads and transoms shower head I remove. Water pump off. Taps run down. But also in the water in the south of the Uk with heaters and dehumidifier on, the boat doesn’t get remotely close to zero inside, it’s about 10 degrees at worst.
 
Agree about the transom shower heads, but really no need to drain any of the domestic water supplies including the calorifier particularly if you have tube heaters. I have ke[t my boats afloat in Poole for 30 years and never had any sign of freezing - apart from the shower head when moored with the transom facing east. simple to install stop cocks into the feeds and remove the head.
 
not sure how is electricity supply at your dock; but if you leave things on you need some sort of monitoring in case the breaker trips and you loose power on the boat. at least if there is somebody to check periodically.
 
We leave ours on power in water at Haslar over winter. But tend to visit monthly The only issue is dehumidifier burns through power fairly quickly so if going away would ensure account topped up we don’t drain tanks-the dehumidifier we’re have creates a slight heat in one of its modes. We haven’t had any freezing issues with this set up. We take bedding home but leave cushion on board on sides. Also have a few stand alone dehumidifier units in cabins and bags in hanging lockers. As said fridge/freezer off along with other power items . Also tend to have a fan heater plus a convector rad if staying for the night but the dehumidifier in heat mode is good at warming interior/drying clothes.
 
Momac said:
Probably not

But its not the ton of water that is most likely to cause a problem.
Over the years I have lost three shower heads which was tiny amounts of water that I obviously failed to drain out .
Click to expand...
I left the water in the tank, non toxic anti freeze in it and ran it through the pipes and taps, came back to rinse out the tank and start getting the boat ready for the season to find the tank empty, started filling it and heard the water pump run and start to pressurise the water pipes. Ran off the water through the heads at the bow and then the galley and lastly in the aft heads shut the taps and got on with checking over the engines and thinking the water pump is still running.... did I leave a tap open? No, all shut, did not hear the bilge pump run so nothing going into the bilge, went outside to be greeted with a fan of water coming from the stern and a jet of water arching to the other side of the canal, Oh Bother! I had forgotten to seal off the bathing platform shower mixer and it had split. Sealed off the pipes with blanking plugs and the tank filled without the water pump trying to empty it into the canal.

We leave the power on all winter with a tube heater in the bilge under the engines, just enough to keep it all from freezing.
 
Alicatt said:
I left the water in the tank, non toxic anti freeze in it and ran it through the pipes and taps, came back to rinse out the tank and start getting the boat ready for the season to find the tank empty, started filling it and heard the water pump run and start to pressurise the water pipes. Ran off the water through the heads at the bow and then the galley and lastly in the aft heads shut the taps and got on with checking over the engines and thinking the water pump is still running.... did I leave a tap open? No, all shut, did not hear the bilge pump run so nothing going into the bilge, went outside to be greeted with a fan of water coming from the stern and a jet of water arching to the other side of the canal, Oh Bother! I had forgotten to seal off the bathing platform shower mixer and it had split. Sealed off the pipes with blanking plugs and the tank filled without the water pump trying to empty it into the canal.

We leave the power on all winter with a tube heater in the bilge under the engines, just enough to keep it all from freezing.
Click to expand...
I bought a new transom shower head after it split with frost and then the new one split the next winter.
Needless to say I have learned my lesson and I now remove the shower head from the transom . Frosts can occur without much prior warning and I think in the UK we have been fooled by several years of mild temperatures. Where I live we seem to have returned to more frequent frosts in the last couple or three years .

I agree frost protection heating is not trying to heat the boat to human comfort levels but simply to keep it above freezing . I have one thermostat set to cut in as the temp falls to 5 degrees and the other is a rotary dial set more by guesswork.
 
Momac said:
I bought a new transom shower head after it split with frost and then the new one split the next winter.
Needless to say I have learned my lesson and I now remove the shower head from the transom . Frosts can occur without much prior warning and I think in the UK we have been fooled by several years of mild temperatures. Where I live we seem to have returned to more frequent frosts in the last couple or three years .

I agree frost protection heating is not trying to heat the boat to human comfort levels but simply to keep it above freezing . I have one thermostat set to cut in as the temp falls to 5 degrees and the other is a rotary dial set more by guesswork.
Click to expand...
It is wind chill that does for the transom shower head. Small amount of water in a flimsy plastic tube. The split is usually along the moulding line. Anything inside is unlikely to freeze. Even with thick snow on the boat and a film of ice on the water interior temperature never goes below freezing. This is south coast, but elsewhere in the country - East Coast for example windchill in the spring easterlies can bring interior temperatures down, particularly if the boat is out of the water.
 
We suffer 4 months of winter here .... can drop to -20C or lower ...

Bilges - decent slug of Antifreeze in there ... lift bilge pump OUT !!
Toilet - decent slug of antifreeze pumped through and another slug left in bowl.
Engine bay on my MoBo has an 80W bathroom towel rail heater ...
Engine bays on my other sailboats will have Greenhouse Tube heaters this coming winter.
All engines Antifreeze through and then closed valves.
FW tanks emptied along with piping.
If fuel tanks (diesel) still contain reasonable volume of fuel - then an amount of gasoline dropped in to 'winterise' the fuel and reduce parafins settling out.
Never bothered with dehumids etc - but I make sure that batterys are still connected to mains charger ... charged batterys can survive severe cold ... discharged batterys do not.
 
lanerboy said:
Hi All

We go to Spain for 3 months over winter and I'm wondering what to do with my boat on the south coast.

Do I leave it plugged in with a dehumidifier running into the sink or do I unplug the electric hook up turn all the batteries off and just leave it for 3 months then I won't have any worries of anything going wrong with electric supplies, battery chargers etc etc

What do other people do
Click to expand...
As a new person here, hi y'all, are there people at the marina (other boat owners) that you could trust to "look after it" while you're away and perhaps you'd return the favour?
 
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