Axis Wakeboard Boat Forum

How long do some of you guys keep your boats in the water?

I have my boat in a slip at a marina. I am in Kentucky. I guess I am trying to keep the boat out of storage for as long as possible!!

So when the temperature drops at night I am wondering how cold is too cold when the boat is insulated by warm say 60 degree water?

Do some of you guys just put a heater/lamp in the engine bay to protect against dropping air temp at night?

Or are you guys draining all water from the engine and heater core after every session?

Also what would you do for the ballast tanks in this situation?

What precautions would one take if they wanted to ride all winter? lol I'm just not ready to give in to the cold at night temps yet!!!

Do you know the feeling!!!!! I know there has to be some hard core wet suit wearing guys on here that ride all winter here that will chime in!!!!!

Very few people on this forum slip their boats so it may be slow to get a response.

This may not help because we keep our boat in a metal building at the lake. (out of the water).
I only drain the block when the temp gets below 25 for more than 24 hours.
I drain the heater that I installed when it drops below 30 for more than 24 hours.
I always drain the ballast when we are done riding.
Have some friends that keep theirs on the lake and use a heater in the engine compartment. I think it has a thermostat on it that turns on when the temp gets to a certain point.

Not sure if any of that helped or not.

If the air temp along with the water temp when added together is 100 then we are riding.

Bama Axis said: "If the air temp along with the water temp when added together is 100 then we are riding."


I have tried to tell this to the kids for years. But that being said, we are thinking the next weekend is probably the last non-wetsuit weekend until spring. The water and air get cold in winter, but that is why the Meistrell twins founded Bodyglove and invented the modern wetsuit!

My rule of thumb is 140. I did put 170 hours on my boat this year so I am not worried about not riding at this moment. We got snow here yesterday.

We're thinking December... I'm also a fan of the 100 deg rule. However, we did break out the wet suits this weekend.