Spring Commissioning for Your Boat: A Not-Awfully-Annoying Special Advertising Section That You’ll Hopefully Find Helpful.
We certainly hope that late last year you took the time to properly winterize your boat’s fuel system, drain down the plumbing lines, and otherwise prepare Mom’s Mink for winter lay-up. If so, spring commissioning should be easy, and hopefully problem-free. Either way, now that the fish have started snapping a careful commissioning job needs to be done or you could end up with issues that (horror of horrors!) ruin a perfectly good day of fishing. You want to make sure everything on your boat performs flawlessly from the first trip of this season to the last? Of course you do. Lucky for you and I, sponsor Techron Marine was willing to foot the bill to create this spring commissioning video.
Let’s list out those important points:
- Give your boat a thorough visual inspection from stem to stern. Open all the lockers, peek in all the deck hatches, and make sure there hasn’t been any freeze damage or other issues that occurred over the winter.
- Pop the outboard cowl (or engine box) and look around to make sure no wild critters built a nest or chewed on any hoses or wires inside. Sometimes they do, and it can cause a lot of damage.
- Give your batteries the once-over. Make sure there’s no corrosion at the connections, and they’re filled and charged to proper levels. Note: one of the most common issues encountered by boaters after winter lay-up is battery problems.
- Flip every switch and turn on every system. From lights to pumps to appliances, now’s the time to verify that everything is in tip-top shape and working properly.
- Hopefully, you changed your fuel/water separator at the end of last season. If not, make sure to do so now.
- Same goes for treating your fuel. If you didn’t do so when you laid the boat up, add the proper amount of Techron Marine to your fuel tank now to remove deposits, battle potential ethanol issues, and keep the engine running strong. One ounce of Techron Marine treats 10 gallons of gas.
- Ensure a sufficient water supply is flowing to the engine, turn the key, and listen to that magical springtime music of your boat cranking to life for the first time of the season.
Folks, we know that at this point it’ll be tough to contain yourself. With the engine rumbling and spring in the air, you’ll have visions of charging forth onto the Bay, rods bending over, drags screaming wildly, and fish flipping in the cooler. But wait – you need to contain yourself just a few minutes longer. You’ll want to let the engine idle for several minutes to make sure all the fogging fluid burns off and the Techron Marine makes its way through the entire fuel system.
Okay – the lights are now flashing green. It’s time to load up the rods, cast off the lines, and go fishing.