[z275st]

A friend of mine called today. He had his boat winterized last fall. He got it out for the first time yesterday. Before he made it out of the no wake zone he noticed it was smoking so he lifted the motor cover and found the bilge full of water. He got back and loaded on the trailer and found the shop had taken the hoses off and put them back by the engine. He found the hose clamps and drain plugs in a bag under the bow seat! The engine had gotten hot enough to melt the black conduit on some wires. After getting home he replaced the hoses and plugs then started the engine and it seemed to run fine, but he is going to have it checked for damage. Usually a shop will, and should, tell you that they have done this. He is new to boating and didn’t think to check the engine prior to first launch of the season. If you have someone winterize your boat always check the water hoses and plugs!

[WetWilly]

That all true, but it's standard proceedure to pull the drain plugs and the lowest hoses to drain all the water, Sorry about your friend, but it sounded like he didn't known what a "Winterizing" involved. Just remember, Winterized in fall, UN-winterized in spring...

I believe several members use a checklist for both storage/winterizing and preparing for the seasons first outing. It's easy to forget something after winter and spring have past.

Hope all is well with his motor, tell him to change the oil and filter while he's having it checked out. If the motor got hot enough to melt plastic outside, the oil must have gotten pretty hot too.

Good luck,
WetWilly

[il_Mio]

Wetwilly,

maybe not a bad idea to start gathering members checklists for different activities (winterizing, un-winterizing, loading, un-loading, ....).

I am sure some of us ( I am one of them ) will still be able to learn from other peoples lists.

Cheers,

Johan