I’ve put the boat on the hard several times but will be leaving it a bit longer this time and it can be hotter than the dickens where we are at.
Anyone have a good mothball checklist they want to share?
Depending on where you are leaving it. We do a few things..
Put the lithium batteries into storage mode by adjusting the charge curve so the do not charge to more than 70% ( super important)
Put cheap car windscreen shades between the window and the external clip on window shades. (Dramatically drops the internal temperature)
Setup the dehumidifier on the kitchen bench with the drain going down the kitchen sink. We set it at 50% humid. It’s a balance between how long the dehumidifier runs for, and the humidity.
We open every cupboard door, include the ones through the shower and have 2 fans on timers . One in each hull to promote air flow.
We drain the water tank. We do this before being lifted.. less stress. A friend had a toilet solenoid leak. It allowed the water to feed ever so slowly under gravity from the water tank through the toilet and out the toilet bowl. It was fresh water, and it was discovered on the first few days of storage, so no harm done. So we always drain the water tank.
Organise someone to do a video walkthrough. I have done this for lots of friends with boats in storage, and friends have done it for me. A live video walkthrough is gold. It allows you to examine anything. You know your boat better than anyone else. A storage report from a marina is nothing compared to a live messenger or WhatsApp video call.
If stored in water, all seacocks must be off, or you will have no insurance. Yes insurance companies send divers to check on the position of all seacocks.
Some people have really neat panels that sit on top of all of their hatches. They stop sunlight destroying the plastic in the hatches, and keep the boat much cooler.
We put tape between the winch push button and the flip up cover. It protects the rubber pushbutton from UV and dramatically increases their life.
I have seen a shade tarpaulin over the trampoline.
Some people put a funnel on the shore power cable to prevent rats getting in. Some people put cockroach bait on pieces of cardboard around the boat. The same with ant bait.
Everyone probably already does this. I’m sure others have some really good ideas.
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Hi Don
I guess the check list varies depending on where you haul out …as when we hauled in Trinidad our list is no a little different here in the north of Greece as we are hauling out here for the winter and in Trinidad we hualed out for the summer (due to hurricane season which is not an issue (supposedly … we had over 70 knots in an anchorage in Montenegro!!) … so the heat and humidity management is a big issue.
To manage that we washed every wall down before pacing up the yacht with a mixture of warm water and 25 % white vinegar. We vacumm packed all our bedding, towels and some clothes - the ret we left hanging in the cupboards with desicants and left all doors open. We ran a humidifier (same set up as Mike) and had someone come onto the yacht every ten days and send us photos of the battery levels and to check the yacht inside and out. It was washed down on the outside every two weeks. I have never seen a more harmful environment for storing a yacht that Chagaramus in Tridindad !!!
Here in Greece we completely depower the yacht (so that the lithium only uses one cycle in the 7 months we are away ) and do not run a dehumidifier .. We do wash down all the walls etc and vacumm everything as before.
In addtion we also do the following.
I mouse all my halyards and wash the halyards
I have Perko flush kits on my Yanmars and generator and run them with a salt off solution with fresh water for ten minutes
I fresh water flush the aircons
I remove all my sails
Store the trampoline with shade cloth on top (Thanks Brivan)
Removes all flags
Clean all thru hulls and cover holes with masking tape
silicon all hatch seals and fit Sunbrella covers on all winches and hatch covers
Remove all anchor chain and wash chain and remove anchor swivel and cut off end link that goes into the swivel (you might be amazed what this looks like after 12 months usage!
Fit Instrument covers and secure with tape
remove foil boards and sups and stanchion racks (my SUPS are not inflatable )
Remove bow sprit and bridel
Remove wind instrument (when I remove main halyard ) my previous wind instrument packed up so I now have a dummy plug to seal the cable at the top of the mast and it takes 7 months of wear and tear of the anemometer
empty water tank (before haul out .. like Mike) and clean all gray and black tanks before haul out
Remove dinghy bungs (I now store my dinghy under the bridge deck with the cover on ) Thanks Brivan.
Lock all hatches and helm hatch
Fill diesel tank to 100% and add storage solution
Clean and silicone escape hatches
Flush salt water deck flush pump
Disconnect ALL starter batteries (once fully charged)
Remove all batteries form torches and other devices
Charge ALL fully all lithuim devices, handheld radios, gadgets and appliances
Pickel water maker with propaleyne glycol
Flush and service dinghy outboard
remove all winch handles from winch pockets
Table ocver on
remove all blinds and cockpit cushions
Remove BBQ gas bottle
Cover on BBQ
All fridges switched off, cleaned and door secured in open position.
Empty garbage bin !!!
Empty kettle and clean coffee machine
Remove, wash and store all fishing rodes SUP paddles and broom handles
These are the main things that I think are general to most Knysnas … I have other boat specific things
Cheers
Steve
Remove VHF mic from helm
Fit helm cover and helm seat cover
Trip all circuit breakers