Winterizing 340 Dancer

[msballin]

Good Morning -

My last visit to this site was in May of this year. I was pondering whether or not to haul or pilot my '00 340 Dancer just purchased in S. Portland, ME back home to Oakdale, Long Island. Well, your advice was well received and I hired a captain and accompanied him on the journey home with "Barefoot". 5-8ft swells into a 12-15 kt SW wind, pea soup fog, thunder and lightning was the fare for the two day excursion. Came through it like a champ. Great experience while viewing whales, tuna and such. Thanks for the advice.

Now, I'm back for more. I'm a pretty handy guy and was considering winterizing her systems. However, as a first timer with this type of vessel, I'd like your advice. She's got a vacuflush, a/c, generator, hot water heater, transom wash down and the rest of what normally would be a fresh water system. She also has 7.4 fwc horizons with fresh water flush kits on her exhaust.

As mentioned above, I'm on Long Island in the Northeast and will have her beside my home for winter storage. Shrink wrap or tarp? Moisture control recommendations as well would be appreciated.

Whadaya think? Thanks in advance.

Mike

 

[Beer Thirty]

Theres plenty of useful info in this forum. you'll just have to spend the time to search.

The service manual has good detailed instructions as well. if you don't have one id say get one. Its money WEEELL spent.

 

[gerryb]

I winterized our 280 Sunday in our back yard. Took about 6 hours but that's mostly due to not having all the tools/equipment when I needed them and having to get in and out of the boat what seemed like a hundred times...

Winterizing your 340 won't be difficult at all but it is a bit time consuming to make sure it is all done correctly. You'll need alot of different 'stuff' to do each component properly. I start with the water system, then the vacuflush, AC, genset, cabin and end with engines. I also clean/degrease the bildge while I'm down there and some other maintenance items.
The next morning I call our shrinkwrap guy and he'll bring his team in sometime this week to shrink wrap her in place. I've thought about a nice Fisher canvas but the NJ shrink wrap guy I found is EXCELLENT and charges 1/2 what Marinemax does.

Since she is put away in our yard, I also run an electric cord out there and have an XTREME bilge heater in place as well to futher mitigate freezing-related problems.

Search the site but feel free to post any specific questions.