Keeping your boat usable all winter

[Mikentucky]

Does anyone keep their boat usable year-round? This is our first year staying in the water, our previous boats have all been small and trailerable. Our current boat is a 1994 400 Express Cruiser with bluewater cooling. We are in a marina that is a very low risk of freezing and has reliable electric. We have the OEM bilge heaters. We're definitely not hauling out, and I'm toying with the idea of winterizing only the cockpit water (icemaker, sink, and transom washdown) but keeping the cabin and bilge heated and accessible all winter. I'm thinking I could keep the water lines in the cabin along the port wall to the galley and head from freezing with a plug-in low voltage water line heater like I use in my RV (link below), plugged in at the cabin area so there's no risk of explosion in the bilge. Thoughts, suggestions? Thanks!

https://www.amazon.com/PHOENIX-Mult...ords=water+line+heater&qid=1603467328&sr=8-25

 

[northern]

We kept boats on Vancouver Island in the water for 14 years. Temperature would go to 25F some times and you could get 2 feet of snow. We never winterized anything. Once the water filter for the ice maker froze. We now keep the boat in Anacortes on the hard. It is full winterized every year. My boat neighbour never winterizes and for 6 years it was fine. He missed boating 2 summer ago as he had to replace all the waterlines due to it went to 10F for a week. In basic terms he had to open all the walls. Point is slight cold and you will be fine most of the time but eventually you will freeze things. Heat tracing pipes works at minus 40 when I worked in camps. You need to insulate the pipe also. You might be better to just blow out the lines when ever you are not on the boat.

 

[ocgrant]

Yep... Live in Florida

 

[JimT]

I stay in the water year round. I set the cabin heater to 55. I have bilge heater plus our water temp very rarely goes below 50 and the lowest I have ever seen is 45. When I leave the boat I open all of the faucets to depressurize. If we are going to have a real cold snap I put a ceramic heater in the cockpit.

 

[Little Ducky]

I use one of these in the cabin almost set to its lowest setting.
https://www.westmarine.com/buy/west-marine--portable-cabin-heater--7867500?recordNum=1

And I have a boat safe bilge heater.

I winterize the water system and septic..... but I do use the toilet from time to time so I use a jug of water to flush then just flush a little more antifreeze before leaving.

I then use a system to monitor the temperature in the cabin, in the bilge and on the helm.

 

[Ponty]

We live on the gulf coast, so year round boating for sure! Well, we’ll be back to year round once our marina gets back up and running from Hurricane Sally

 

[Wheelhouse]

I keep my 560 in the water all year round, and nighttime temps around here (MD) in winter are usually in the 20's. I had covers made for the engine room intakes (I mount them inside the engine room on the moisture eliminators) and run the block heaters and leave the door between the engine room and lazarette open so both areas usually stay in the 70's. I added the dometic electric auxiliary heaters to all of my air handlers so I can run heat all winter without fear of freezing the heat pumps (water temps usually drop to mid 30's). The only actual "winterizing" I do is to drain the water from the cockpit shower, bridge sink, and rope locker lines. The electric bill during the winter is a killer, but still cheaper than winterizing the boat and I can still use it all winter.