Quick Freeze Protection (not full winterization)

[GradyChris]

My' 98 272 Sailfish is at my mechanic's shop getting some tune up work done to the outboards along with engine winterization.
I may not have the boat back to me for another 10-14 days to do the complete winterization in my driveway. With it now getting cold at night here in NH I'm thinking of quick projects I can do from the mechanics shop this coming wknd if he is not yet complete with the engine work.

Thinking if I poured some RV Antifreeze into the lines (water tank, head) I buy myself some time and risk something freezing. I don;t mind doing this twice and do a complete winterzation in a few weeks when I get the boat back home to my driveway.

The RV/Marine antifreeze is like $2.60/gallon at my local Wal Mart and a few extra gallons of that is much cheaper than the alternative. Thinking I can bring my shop vac to the boat and suck any water out of the bilge as well.

Also, I have some guys helping me with the complete winterization but they arent available for a couple weeks anyhow.
So thinking what can I do on my own that is easy, quick and at minimum prevents freeze damage for a couple weeks?

Does this make sense? Cold came in faster than I expected and its going to get into the 20's at night at least a couple times over the next 10-14 days.

 

[seasick]

The water tank should be drained. You can run the sink till water stops. Add antifreeze to the tank and then run the pump again till you see pink. Open faucets and spray handles to let water drain back towards the tank.Every outlet should be run till you see the pink antifreeze

Ideally the holding tank should be pumped out but that is not practical so add antifreeze to the head and flush. Repeat a few times if you can. Leave a few inches of antifreeze in the toilet.

drain any raw water washdown lines or hoses. Leave the sea cocks open. If possible disconnect the hoses at the pumps (if you go back in the water, make sure you close the seacocks.
Draining the bilge may not help if the bilge normally gets water in it. For now just pour antifreeze into the bilges. Of course you can drain the bilge and remove the garboard drain plug but unless the hull is angled aft, water can still collect. In that case leave the plug in and add antifreeze. Basically any hose that has a low spot is subject to freezing if it has water in it. Same goes for ant filters on water systems. You just have to make sure that all parts of the plumbing have no water or have antifreeze in them. I like to remove hoses from pumps if I can get to them and run the pump to 'blow' out any resting water.
If you have AC, you will need to research what if anything has to be done to winterize.

 

[DennisG01]

What type of head system do you have?

Water tank... On my last boat (Sea Ray Sundancer), I would run it dry, then remove the water line from the tank and stick that line into a small bucket of AF. Then run each faucet (after draining and bypassing the water heater) - there were five of them, including the head - until pink came out. That way I avoided putting AF into the tank and didn't have to flush it out as much some Spring. I'm not sure if that will work for you - depends on access to the tank. But any residual water (maybe an inch or two) in the water tank will not cause any damage to the tank when that residual water freezes. If you can't access the tank, just run it empty and pour a couple gallons of AF into and run that out all your faucets.

If you have A/C, a simple thing is to use a hand pump and push the hose into the thru-hull discharge (hull side) and pump AF into it until it runs out the open seacock.

For my raw water washdown, I remove the hose from the seacock and just plop it into a gallon jug of antifreeze and turn the hose on. You could do the same thing for your livewell(s). If you can't easily get to your seacocks to remove the hoses, invest in a Fake-A-Lake (or make one)... Google it.

There's no reason you have to do this twice. If you're successful at preventing a freeze, you're successful at preventing a freeze - colder temperatures just mean things stay frozen longer. But a freeze is a freeze is a freeze.