If you still haven’t had a chance to go boating this summer for some inhumane reason, the time is most certainly ripe! Before you do however, make sure you conduct a few quick checks to make it a smooth first outing.
Hopefully you followed our advice and prepared your boat for hibernation during the cold winter months, and she now only needs a few quick checks that you can easily perform at home.
Electrical System
Hopefully you detached the cables from your battery to avoid the potential discharge that will occur if it stands unused for long periods of time, as the alternator can only keep the battery fully charged if the engine itself is running. Failure to have done so could lead to an ignominious silence as you attempt to restart, which, if in front of a sizable launch-site crowd, could knock the confidence…
However, if you did detach them, reattach the cables now and make sure that the terminals are not corroded. If they are, then scrub them clean with a wire brush or something similar. Check the water levels (distilled water) and top up if necessary, while checking the volts and amps reading with a battery tester. Your battery may need to be put on charge briefly to ensure that it’ll run at its optimum level.
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