Hello,

I have a 86 scarab panther, 7.4 mercs. Keep in a lifted slip and had originally planned to pull boat for winter and drop at marina last weekend to winterize, decided to leave in slip for winter under cover and not clog the driveway up. Needless to say marina can’t winterize til Thanksgiving now. We live in Virginia but looks a little colder than normal. Calling for 45/25 and 45/27 this weekend, then a few more nights in 30/28 range next few weeks.

Marina told me unless it stays below freezing solid for a day or two, no worries. Thoughts??

5 hours at 23F (-5C) will freeze and prob split.

There is another thread on here about a thermostatically controlled/ C.G certified bilge heater - don't recall price but cheaper than engines if the threat of a freeze is there.... or drain your cooling systems to minimize damage

What does it take to freeze & crack an engine block?



24* for 24hrs is the general rule.

Id pull all the plugs, who can predict the weather

i have a couple of these,dont remember what they cost but they work well.

If those are the actual low temps, they will only be that low for a couple hours and you'll be fine.
If it changes and they're gonna be lower, I'd do the lightbulb option or just drop it in the water. The water temp will be significantly warmer than the air temp.

Another thread on this and I decided:

https://www.boatownersworld.com/cafr...-400-watt.html

Xtreme Small Boat Heater - 300 Watt

You should be fine at those temps, especially this time of year over the water while the water temps are warmer than air temps. This time of year at LOTO many marinas will tell you sustained temp around 20 for 24 hours given the water temps are still around 60. Testing their theory would make me a bit nervous, but the light bulb or 2 will work for the next 3 weeks.

Just put a 100W bulb in a droplight in the bilge. These work great for that task. I always went with two in case of a bulb failure.