Winter is almost upon us and as boat skippers we’ve all been working to get our loves ready for that cold weather. We winterized the head on our Newport 30 the other day. It’s a pretty easy step and only requires a screwdriver, funnel and the green anti-freeze. Here’s the quick and easy steps to winterizing the head on your boat.

Take your boat to the pump-out station and pump out your holding tank. Be sure to rinse the vent and tank with fresh water and pump that out too. Once you’re back at your slip, make sure you have a bottle of green anti-freeze, a screwdriver, flashlight and funnel or small bucket if you’re by yourself.

Locate the through hull for the raw water intake for the head. Turn the handle to close off the intake.

Loosen the hose clamp on the opposite side of the strainer and remove the hose. Place the funnel end in the hose and pour the anti-freeze in, then have your helper pump the head as if they are flushing it. If you’re by yourself, then you’ll need to monkey with a bucket and pump the head yourself.

Pump the head, keeping a constant supply of anti-freeze going until you’ve pumped the anti-freeze through the line, into the toilet and 8-10 pumps more to get some into the holding tank.

Re-attach the hose to the raw water strainer and tighten the clamp.

That wasn’t too hard, was it? Your head is now winterized and come spring all you need to do to recommission your boat head, is open the raw water intake.

Find more articles about winterizing your boat ‘here’.

Read more on how to pump out your boat head  ‘here’

Read a humorous story about why you need to pump out often ‘here’

Read more on common problems in toilets ‘here’