First things to do after removing the cover?

Sailing Amok · April 16, 2021, 04:08:34 AM

Ok, we are officially 1 month (less a day) away from spring launch, and couldn't be more excited / nervous. As this was our first time winterising a boat there is of course some anxiety about what we may discover we did wrong etc. once she splashes. Also, I'm admittedly dreading putting the mast up. But, that is a month away, and there is much work to be done before then. We have a pretty good idea about what annual spring commissioning tasks need to be accomplished and what opportunities we should take while still on the hard, but I'm curious if anyone has any suggestions for the very first steps they take each year after removing the winter cover? We're going to head to the yard this evening after work, which should leave us with a couple hours of daylight to get the cover off, and start in on things. Of course we will be back at the yard over the weekend as well.
Any advice is greatly appreciated,
A&K

Jim Hardesty · April 16, 2021, 05:53:42 AM

A & K,

I'll be taking my cover off next week (retired

). When Shamrock is on the hard I concentrate on what can't be done in the water. Here is an incomplete list in more or less order.

Check and charge batteries first time you spend a few hours on/around the boat. I would not charge them if I wasn't there.
Do your winterizing list in reverse, as makes sense.
Lube seacocks and leave shut. Tie your ignition key to the engine raw water seacock. It's easy to forget to open in the excitement of launch day .
Paint bottom. I do that yearly, (VC17) some only touch up as necessary.
Wax hull.
Optional. Remove the fuel gage plate and vacuum pump a sample of fuel from the bottom of the fuel tank, need a hard pipe to get to the bottom and a clear container. That will mostly show the condition of the fuel. It's sat for months and most contamination has settled to the bottom.
Give everything a prelaunch check, steering gear, oil levels, belt tension etc.
I do not start the engine on the hard. I have confidence that it will start.
That's what I do.
One last thought. Note where they put the lift straps. Pictures of where they are at deck level. This will be the best place for the straps when it's time to lift out.
Hope it all goes easy,
Jim

glennd3 · April 16, 2021, 08:15:17 AM

I dont really have a list to follow in order. I try to go through each "system" IE. Battery, fuel,water,sails.... as the weather and time permits. You can also do some after launching for example you can do the water system after launching if the yard does not have water available.

Ron Hill · April 16, 2021, 03:08:02 PM

A & K : Jim gave you a good list to follow. Make a copy of the lifting diagram in your owner manual and make sure the lift operator sees that diagram.

If you are lifted so high that the back stay will come in contact with the travel lift cross bar - take dock lines and put them around the vertical of the travel lift (each side) and then winch the hull forward so the boat can be lifted up and NOT have the backstay touch!!

Insure that all hoses are reconnected to all thru hulls and that the thru hulls are turned OFF. The first thing that you do when the boat splashes WITH the straps still attached , is to go onboard and open one by one each thru hull checking for any leaks. Then get the engine running. Then hand move the boat out of the straps.

A few thoughts

Sailing Amok · April 21, 2021, 05:34:16 AM

Thanks gang, and sorry for the late response to your posts, it has been a very busy few days. Sadly most of that busyness has not been boat related. We took the cover off last Friday, plugged her in, and reinstalled the davits and TV antenna all of which had been removed for trucking the boat to our new home town in the fall. It was much less stressful dealing with the davits on the hard, than it was dangling over the water when we removed them last year. Funny enough, the davits and the TV antenna are our two least favourite features of Coral Wave, yet the things we have put back together first. We only installed the TV antenna because it is also the stanchion to which the rear nav light is mounted. We've never actually used the TV. The davits are nice, but having the tender on them interferes with the swim platform. Though I imagine we'll be doing far less swimming here in Lake Superior than we were in and around Kingston, ON.
I noticed a lot of folks at the yard doing their buffing and bottom paint, but my impression from things I've read on this forum is that VC-17 should be done as close to launch as possible, so we had intended to wait until the week of. Is that unnecessary? Best to just get it out of the way?
We'll start working our way down the list as suggested by Jim, unfortunately this week we got hit with a fresh blast of winter weather, just when we thought we were in the clear.

Jim Hardesty · April 21, 2021, 06:25:28 AM

Quotebut my impression from things I've read on this forum is that VC-17 should be done as close to launch as possible,

Think that's the manufactures recommendation, I don't think it's that critical, last seasons paint seems to work ok, at least in Erie, bottom paint performance is very local. So if the weather is dry but too cold to wax spend the day painting. Don't know your experience with VC17, so I'll say wind can be a problem painting.
It snowed a couple of inches and still snowing. Glad I waited to take the cover off.
Jim

Phil Spicer · April 21, 2021, 12:08:56 PM

We are also in Lake Erie, western end. Have never noticed any difference as to when the paint was put on. It is nice that you can paint just a few hours ahead of launch time because it will dry very fast.
Paint on a quiet day because wind will dry the paint on your roller.
Have even painted every other year with good results. But I know every area is different.

Ron Hill · April 21, 2021, 02:07:35 PM

Aaron : I like to be lifted the last lift of the day and stay in the sling overnight. That way you can paint the underside of the wing keel - so the paint will dry. Then you are the first to be splashed the next morning. If the Yard will do that ?

A thought

Sailing Amok · April 23, 2021, 07:16:56 PM

Quote from: Ron Hill on April 21, 2021, 02:07:35 PM
Aaron : I like to be lifted the last lift of the day and stay in the sling overnight. That way you can paint the underside of the wing keel - so the paint will dry. Then you are the first to be splashed the next morning. If the Yard will do that ?

A thought

Oh, that's clever. Unfortunately we are already booked in as the first lift of the day! Are there no concerns with leaving the boat in the slings that long? My impression is that on the hard, the keel takes all the weight not the hull on the pads.

Ron Hill · April 24, 2021, 01:20:49 PM

Aaron : I've done that for 10/15? years and have no hull problems.

The reason that started doing that was because I was slowly losing speed and couldn't figure out why?? I had a diver cleaning off the prop and asked him to look under the wing keel. He looked and told me I had a complete colony of barnacles under there!! He knocked some of them off for me.
The end of that season I had to use a ice chopper to scrape all of those ciders off down to the gelcoat. So from then on I made sure the underside of the wing has bottom paint on it!

A thought

KWKloeber · April 29, 2021, 10:36:13 PM

Quote

Are there no concerns with leaving the boat in the slings that long? My impression is that on the hard, the keel takes all the weight not the hull on the pads.

Yes, the weight is off the pads (used for balance only) because you don't want the hull oil-canning at a pad because of the small surface area supported.
The length of the slings distribute weight around a larger area. In reality on most boats, the lift points and pad locations are typically placed near major bulkheads so oil-canning becomes less of an (but doesn't completely eliminate the) issue.