5 Mid-Season Boating Maintenance Tips
5 Mid-Season Boating Maintenance Tips
For many August is either the middle of the boating season or spells the near end of the boating season, especially for boaters in the northern states. Either way, vessel maintenance is critical to ensuring great experiences on the water.
- Clean the boat. Keeping your upholstery clean and preserved will add many extra years of life and joy. If you are like many, the more time spent on the boat and the more friends on the boat, the higher the likelihood of food, sunscreen or other grime and mold developing. Taking care of the hull and cleaning the bottom, especially those vessels kept in the water is important not just for performance but also for the care and will make the end of the season cleaning a little easier.
- Many boats are used hard on the weekends and then sit for long periods, before the next adventure. Check the oil in your engines. Inspect for any leaks around fittings or hoses.
- Inspect your electrical. Are all your lights working as they should? Bilge operating appropriately, float switch working. Horn operable. Batteries holding their charge appropriately. All of these were probably check preseason, always a good idea to check these regularly. Better you check them and find them working or find a problem than to have the Sherriff or Coast Guard check and they find them not working appropriately. Of worse a heavy rain and the bilge not operating as it should.
- Inspect the props and Anodes. Looking for wear, looseness and dings to the prop. Always better to find potential problems early. And check the Anodes. Seeing these being eaten away by stray current in the harbor can be a huge cost and headache saver for you. Otherwise, that stray current and do significant damage to the vessel and engines.
- Just for those of you up North. Now might be a good time to get your storage and winterizing plans in place. Lock down those dates and locations now. You definitely don’t want to be the last one on their list.
Regular and continuous maintenance keeps your vessel operating when you want to use it and looking good, while you are using it. Follow these simple tips and your boating season will be the best season so far.