www.iFourWinns.com

Hey guys hope your 2012 summer season in the states was great! Mine was! To an extent. I have a few questions for you please try not to laugh. This is still my first boat.

I have an 05 268 Vista with the Volvo Penta 5.7 with the ever wonderful XDP synthetic outdrive and stainless steel duo props.

I decided to slip my boat this year for the first time and its been a great experience thus far. I have been kicking my self in the butt for not doing it sooner. Anyway, let me start with the easy questions:

1. WInter is coming soon to North Texas and I was wondering what I should do to protect it against the elements (very occasional sub freezing temps). Can I winterize this boat my self? I have always had it dont for me. And every time it looked like they had to drain 20 plus plugs. I wouldnt know where to start. Some help here would be appreciated. The manual does not specific what exactly to do here.

2. Can I just bypass winterization and get a heater for the boat? I have shore power available and hear that this is usually the way the bigger boats go. Whats the story with heaters for our boats? Tip? Prices?

3. I do not have my boat bottom painted. But being a 05 model and ALMOST never being grounded (I'll elaborate later). The bottom looks great. But since its been in the water for a few months now, Im starting to see some algae buildup. Not much but enough to concern me. I called an inland dive service to scrub and check the bottom for any issues. And that looked like a good way to handle this. So should I even bother with paint? after all isnt it a few thousand to paint ever few years? The dive service is supper cheap in comparison.

4. When slipped...What the hell is up with all the spiders??? ....Rhetorical.

5. While slipped..Any tips for oil change and general maintenance on this model boat? Id like to start doing some of this my self to save a few bucks.

6. Now for the doozy. I ran aground in august (sand bar). I was able to tow it off the bar. but we went pretty far in. And now the boat will not engage or go in to gear. I hear some disturbing noises coming from the back of the boat. nothing looks bent from the outside. no leaks at all. props are not bent. Stearing, Trim all work fine. XDP outdrive looks fine. FROM THE OUTSIDE. So I am guessing something broke when I ran up the sand bar and the engine kept running. Also as I tried to back out possibly. At any rate, its not working. And now I need to 1) figure out how to even look at the issue since its dead in the water (how do I get it out?). And 2) what type of damage could "typically" happen from this type of incident?

7. Ever since I first bought this boat, the shifter has been very hard to move. I have never been able to tell if its the shifter itself? The cabling? or maybe something further back? The mechanics I have had look at this have all said the shifting on these boats are never smooth and require some force and hand strength to use. Which makes it hard for my wife. No issue for me. But I was just wondering is something wrong? Or is this just the way the 268 Vista shifter works.

Thanks in advance for any constructive feedback and help for these questions.

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2005 268 Vista

1) if you have to ask, pay someone to do it or have someone show you how to do it.
2) yes you can use a bilge heater, but that only addresses stuff in the bilge not any where else (water lines, A/C, Etc)
3) Personally if it were mine and left in water year around, I would have it painted (mines only in 6 months and its painted)
4) Yep, they were bad this year. Go to Lowes or HD and buy some spider spray for your lines and canvas
5) Oil change is no different in the water than out, heat it up, suck it out, change all the filters and fill it back up
6) Get it pulled and inspected , and while your at it change the bellows and gimble bearing if not done recently. With the age of your boat, it probably came with Gen I bellows and if never changed you can almost be certain it will not be good. The latest bellows in Gen III and it seems to have solved the problem but you still need to change them every 2 yrs at a minimum.

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Bridgewater, PA
2008 Vista 318

7. Those mechanics are full of it. The VP shifter should NOT be diffcult to shift requiring so much strength that your wife couldn't do it. It is literally the same as shifting a car transmission.

Sounds like you def bent some things during your sandbar adventure. Definately want to get her out and looked at. If your slip is far from the ramp, have a buddy tow ya to it. As far as your other questions, I would recommend searching the forum for those topics, winterization as been covered many, many times. Lots of great advice, shoot there is one even titled Spider Poop (not kidding)....Oh, and welcome to the forum!

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1996 205 Sundowner DLX
5.0FL Volvo SX Cobra
Tow Veh: 2012 Nissan Frontier Pro-4X

Winterizing is not hard but you have to know what you're doing and if you miss a drain plug it can cost you big time. If you don't feel confident that you know exactly what to do, pay to get it done.
If you keep your boat in the water, bottom paint is a good idea but some feels it devalues the boat. If a diver could keep it clean that might not be a bad option. Here we must because its salt water and even then you have to pressure wash or acid wash it at the end of the season.
As far as the shifting problem, I agree with Niagara above, any Volvo drive should be smooth shifting as long as there are no worn or bent parts and the cables are not stiff/misadjusted. That was always their claim to fame that the cone clutch shifting is smoother than the dog clutch shifting used in all outboards, the Merc Alpha and OMC Cobra. Even an OMC Cobra, which had a bad rap for stiff shifting, when set up right with a good cable, can shift with 2 fingers pressure. Mine does.
And for your grounding issue, I'd have put in an insurance claim, this is covered on insurance and the repairs should be done now, at the end of the season so you are ready to go next year.

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88 Four Winns 200 Horizon
4.3 OMC Cobra-4bbl
2002 Walker Bay 10/2012 Suzuki 2.5
2008 Walker Bay 8

1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0/Selectrac
2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.7 Hemi/Quadradrive II

Thanks all. Had the bottom cleaned and completely checked. It looks brand new! No salt or brackish water to deal with here. And there are other boaters that have been doing this dive service for years. their boats look great.

As for winterization I think I got this. I also got a 1000watt heater for the engine bay.

Oil. Done deal.

Spiders...dead.

And I will be taking the boat to the shop soon. The shifting, bellows, and anything else need to be looked at.

Thanks again.

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2005 268 Vista

I would not skip winterizing. Think about how expensive it would be if the engine block froze and cracked... It's really not that much work to winterize it. But it's a clusterf*ck of hassles to have to re-power.

What you need in the engine compartment is a boat safe heater. Not just some residential unit. Fumes have a tendency to go ka-BOOM. And the heater probably won't be running often enough to allow them to dissipate (if there were any). So a heater that's not designed for use in an engine room might very well cause the boat to explode. Your insurance agent will no doubt look to find ways to deny your claim, and the wrong kind of heater would be a BIG problem. Yes, the boat safe ones are expensive... welcome to B.O.A.T.

That and you don't necessarily need a lot of wattage. The point isn't to keep it warm, the point is to keep it above freezing. Doesn't take a big heater to do this in a small space like an engine compartment. Assuming you're not keeping it in place with extended periods of below freezing temps.

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista