Winter Yacht Maintenance

Winter Yacht Maintenance – Our Recommended List Of Works

We feel it is essential to carry out a schedule of preventative maintenance and protect your vessel from deteriorating over the winter.

It is all to easy to forget you have a yacht only to find in the spring that the boat and sails are covered in green algae and equipment ceases to work.

Below is a recommended list of winter works that we typically carry out to all the vessels we look after.

We adapt this list to suit the your vessel and your requirements, identifying any works that we feel need attention

Lay Up

• Detailed interior clean
• Detailed exterior clean including teak
• Remove all sails and covers and send away for cleaning and servicing
• Inflate dinghy, wash out and dry before stowing below
• Go through yacht and all equipment, note down any defects or broken equipment
• Check any equipment that has a time expiry date
• Carryout a detailed inspection of the mast
• Place below all deck safety equipment
• Send away any safety equipment that requires annual servicing
• Empty cockpit / deck lockers and clean
• Wash all blocks, jammers, furling gear with fresh water to remove salt deposits
• Rinse out all ropes, halyards and lines with fresh water
• Pull all halyards out from coachroof and hang at mast (alternatively mouse out completely and wash before placing below)
• Release topping lift and lower boom to deck level
• Drain down the fresh water system
• Take apart transom shower tap
• Top up fuel tank
• Set up heaters and dehumidifiers
• Clean battery terminals and coat with vaseline
• Ensure batteries are on charge
• Lift all mattresses and cushions to allow flow of air around the interior of the vessel
• Wedge open doors and cupboards to provide good ventilation
• Empty holding tanks and flush through with fresh water / tank cleaner
• Clean toilets through with fresh water and dismantle pump to prevent freezing

Once Ashore

• Service engine and winterise
• Service gearbox / sail drive
• Check to ensure that vessel is secure in its cradle and / or been chocked correctly by the yard
• Remove all fenders and mooring warps, wash and place below
• Wash down decks and hull to remove any salt deposits
• Plug into shore power and check heaters and dehumidifiers running correctly

Antifouling

• Prepare hull for antifouling
• Remove loose paint
• Sand back hull using orbital sanders
• Wash down hull and remove dust prior to painting
• Apply primer to any bare patches of GRP as required
• Apply two coats of your preferred antifoul
• Paint sail drive

Hull Polishing

• If required machine cut hull to remove minor marks and scratches
• Deeper marks may required more specialised attention
• Remove any yellow staining to hull
• Machine polish hull

Servicing

• Replace anodes as required
• Service sea cocks
• Check rudder bearings
• Check hull to keel joint
• Lower anchor to ground and check chain and fixings
• Clean hatch seals and apply vaseline
• Service winches and jammers
• Check cutlass bearing, propeller and shaft
• Clean and polish propeller

Re Launch

• Recommission engine
• Oversee launch
• Check all skin fittings
• Bleed stern gland (if deep sea seal type)

Re Commissioning

• Refit all deck safety equipment
• Refit boom and run halyards
• Refit sails and covers
• Refit transom shower head, recommission fresh water system
• Run up and test all systems
• Recommission toilet systems
• Detailed exterior clean including any teak
• Detailed interior clean