Hi all

 

we have decided to keep the boat out of the water for the winter - saves us the licence, means we can do all the painting and other jobs need without going gallivanting out on the canal - Oct to March she will be on blocks

 

so the questions are, what do I need to do different from her being in water and being used?

 

fuel full or empty? Water tank full or empty? What else have I forgotten?

 

thanks 

1 minute ago, Seren-y-dwr said:

Hi all

 

we have decided to keep the boat out of the water for the winter - saves us the licence, means we can do all the painting and other jobs need without going gallivanting out on the canal - Oct to March she will be on blocks

 

so the questions are, what do I need to do different from her being in water and being used?

 

fuel full or empty? Water tank full or empty? What else have I forgotten?

 

thanks 

She will probably feel the cold a lot more if there are icy blasts going under her base plate which is normally no colder than the water so frost protection is important 

Type of cooling system or type of boat?

 

Water tank definitely empty, pipes purged as much as you can and all taps/outlets left open. Calorifier drained, instant gas water heater diaphragm chamber drained. 

 

Any Lead acid batteries fully charged.

 

Make sure the engine and any central heating antifreeze is up to strength (say 25%)

Didn’t think about calorifier - well done! 
 

she is keep cooled

 

45ft v hull narrowboat

 

she will be on electric hook up btw

Keel obvs

1 hour ago, Seren-y-dwr said:

Didn’t think about calorifier - well done! 
 

she is keep cooled

 

45ft v hull narrowboat

 

she will be on electric hook up btw

Keel obvs

 

So no raw (canal) water anywhere in the cooling system unless you have a wet exhaust, which is very rare on narrowboats, so nothing to do on that front as long as the antifreeze is strong enough.

freezing of the domestic  water system  is definitely  a greater risk compared to a boat in the water .

But if you have shore power you can manage  this with approriatee draining of water plus  tube heaters or the like on thermostats set to cut in when temperatures fall to around 5 degress C. It is rarely possible to remove all of the water . Remove shower heads an ensure they are dry .

I also use a Meaco desiccant dehumidifier over winter on the unoccupied boat, which uses more electrical power than the frost protection heaters but I feel it is worthwhile  expense for the avoidance of mould. I use this regardless of whether the boat is in the water or in.

https://www.appliancesdirect.co.uk/p/dd8l/meaco-dd8l-8-litre-dehumidifier-dehumidifier?refsource=apadwords&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_id=22026209952&cq_src=google_ads&cq_cmp=22026209952&cq_con=174957790969&cq_term=&cq_med=pla&cq_plac=&cq_net=g&cq_pos=&cq_plt=gp&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22026209952&gbraid=0AAAAAD9z1-2vNdXFoKkVbVd4MMGVsNO12&gclid=Cj0KCQjwzsjVBhC3ARIsALnMv4lkYIxkAMwcGqZUr6dGrzjTdBvROiJpt8uizRZ4KLw7TD4-_ByeElIaAq4PEALw_wcB

 

When ever we put our previous boat into dry dock there were cupboards that you couldn't open once out of water. Something to be aware of

We put our boat on the hard last winter (although due to circumstances it turned into 11 months). I drained the tank and the calorifier and got as much water as possible from the system. But we still lost a bathroom sink tap, presumably some water was left in it and it froze.

We have a separating toilet. There is a urine tank which was pumped out but the gulper pump also has failed, maybe it didn't like being not run at all for 11 months. 

The fridge gave up being a fridge. It was 10 years old so might have failed anyway and I suspect I could have got it regassed but we bought a new one to save any hassle. Saved cleaning the old one! 

12 hours ago, Momac said:

But if you have shore power you can manage  this with approriatee draining of water plus  tube heaters or the like on thermostats set to cut in when temperatures fall to around 5 degress C.

Relying on heaters is not going to help if the shore power supply fails for any reason.

14 minutes ago, David Mack said:

Relying on heaters is not going to help if the shore power supply fails for any reason.

Which it easily can. I've had the typical blue IP44 16A shore line plugs/sockets on either the bollard, or boat end get water in them from snow, or driving rain and trip the RCD in the bollard. That's before we get to the more usual deep fried squirrel at the substation, which is a typical cause of bricks and mortar power cuts. Unless there is someone very regularly visiting, or on site, to check on the boat, I wouldn't rely on shore power as a strategy to keep the boat safe.

47 minutes ago, David Mack said:

Relying on heaters is not going to help if the shore power supply fails for any reason.

I can't say I have had any issues with shore power reliability other than a couple of isolated incidents. 

In any case i did say the risk management should include appropriate draining of water .

 

 

16 hours ago, Tony Brooks said:

 

So no raw (canal) water anywhere in the cooling system unless you have a wet exhaust, which is very rare on narrowboats, so nothing to do on that front as long as the antifreeze is strong enough.

 

And the corrosion inhibitor is still working. 

 

If the antifreeze is still strong enough but the OP doesn't know when it was last changed, then he could add some Ankersol corrosion inhibitor to it and repeat every 2 years.

 

https://www.morrislubricantsonline.co.uk/ankorsol-anti-corrosion-fluid.html

19 hours ago, Seren-y-dwr said:

 

 

fuel full or empty?

 

Diesel has a shelf life due to the biodiesel in it so  it  could be better to have as little as possible on board.  However I would not worry about it one way or another .

You may want some diesel in case you want to put the heating on when visiting the boat to carry out some work.

 

 

Interestingly have had fuel polished today (as part of ongoing efforts to get Ebersbacher to work) and that was exactly the advice from Jason who was doing it.

 

he used to give advice to keep tanks full, but with the reformulation of diesel (including bio in it) his advice is now to keep the minimum in - life of diesel is now only 6 mths to 12 and it has obvs been in supply chain for a while

 

so I think we are going with his advice and leaving it with about 1/3 in (70 liters or so)

30 minutes ago, Seren-y-dwr said:

Interestingly have had fuel polished today (as part of ongoing efforts to get Ebersbacher to work) and that was exactly the advice from Jason who was doing it.

 

he used to give advice to keep tanks full, but with the reformulation of diesel (including bio in it) his advice is now to keep the minimum in - life of diesel is now only 6 mths to 12 and it has obvs been in supply chain for a while

 

so I think we are going with his advice and leaving it with about 1/3 in (70 liters or so)

 

But if you have a "flush" deck filler make sure the sealing O ring is in good condition and I would dress it with silicon grease or Vaseline to minimise the chances of it leaking rain water into the tank.

Yes - fortunately I have the other type which keeps the rain out!

One more question - we have a pump out poo tank - leave full or empty?

Am inclined to leave full as previously (2020) she was out the water for overplaying and we had issues with the tank drying out (problem pumping after this for a while)

Thoughts?

Overplating

6 minutes ago, Seren-y-dwr said:

One more question - we have a pump out poo tank - leave full or empty?

Am inclined to leave full as previously (2020) she was out the water for overplaying and we had issues with the tank drying out (problem pumping after this for a while)

Thoughts?

Overplating

I usually pump out when I get back to the marina and leave it empty, but I've also left it part-full overwinter. Have had no problems either way.

9 minutes ago, Seren-y-dwr said:

One more question - we have a pump out poo tank - leave full or empty?

Am inclined to leave full as previously (2020) she was out the water for overplaying and we had issues with the tank drying out (problem pumping after this for a while)

Thoughts?

Overplating

I doubt you had problems priming the pumping out process, but can see that if you have a vacuum or macerator toilet stuff could have dried in a valve and stopped it sealing, but should have nothing to d with the holding tank being left empty or pumping out.

The flush is normally a clean(ish) water pressure feed, so I can't see how drying out could affect that. I can see that with a dump through and insufficient flushing/stirring at the last pump out MIGHT allow the "pile" below the toilet to dry and then float about when the tank was refilled so it got sucked onto the pump out outlet and blocked it, but we never had that when we left the tanks empty over the winter on the hire fleet, so I think that is unlikely.

I always pump out before laying up the boat for winter.

But after pumping out I always flush some clean water and chemical back in so there is a facility for digestion of some almost inevitable remaining waste

I used to use some blue stuff until I discovered how highly carcinogenic it was. I believe the formula for that has since changed. However instead of the blue stuff I use Odourlos which is an enzyme based product that helps to digest the effluent and I find that more effective and more economical compared to the blue stuff. One measured dose after each pump out is sufficient.

I leave the fresh water and pump out tanks not more than 50% full and have not had any issues over the last 12 years.

9 hours ago, Seren-y-dwr said:

One more question - we have a pump out poo tank - leave full or empty?

Am inclined to leave full as previously (2020) she was out the water for overplaying and we had issues with the tank drying out (problem pumping after this for a while)

Thoughts?

Overplating

As you are taking the boat out of the water for the winter I'd be strongly inclined to pump it out and leave it empty. Being below the waterline the tank is unlikely to freeze when the boat is in the water but it's a different story with the boat on the hard standing.

Yes I understand, but surely the ‘natural action’ of breakdown would hold the temp above freezing?

7 minutes ago, Seren-y-dwr said:

Yes I understand, but surely the ‘natural action’ of breakdown would hold the temp above freezing?

Maybe but I wouldn't count on it, especially after many months of not being used and no fresh 'produce' being added to feed the digestion. The results of any freeze damage would be so horrific, I personally wouldn't risk it!

If you have mains power on the hard standing you could set up a tube type greenhouse heater as an alternative.

Edited October 2Oct 2 by b00ke23

Ok thanks - agree that the potential for horrific damage is high so we will ensure empty!!

When out of the water the swim tank obvs isn’t cooling - so I will turn over the engine monthly but how long for? 30 mins?