www.iFourWinns.com

I put mine on the trailer and brought her home yesterday.

With my recent move and other circumstances, I hardly used her this year. This will be her first winter ever being stored outside. I've been thinking that I can tow my portable genny behind the UTV, hook up the shore power and party aboard on some nice days this winter. That may just shorten up the stinkin winter.

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07 Azure AZ200,
Previous boat,
95 278 Vista,
And a lot of others.

Ontario, Canada

I had a busy summer and didn't get to use it as much as I usually do, plus I had it out of the water for a couple of weeks when I fixed the minor damage from my overheat (exhaust flappers, had to check water tube gaskets in the drive, etc). I've used it the last 3 weekends and the weather has been cool but very nice and hardly any boats at all out there. Gonna try to keep it in a couple more weeks.

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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

Well, last weekend was the last boating weekend for us, and it was a great one! We traditionally put our 298 into heated winter storage after the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend which just passed. Amazing weather, it was into the low 20's °C or low 70's°F for our American friends.

I even went swimming amazingly enough, water was still 65°F!

View of our anchorage last weekend:


Spent the last day prepping the boat for haul out and off for it's winter rest!

cheers

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2004 Four Winns 298 Vista
"Last Minute"

Maybe for you in Melbourne in Miami it's still really hottttt!!!! I am hoping things change for the brrrrrr sooner than later.

I took the boat out Monday after work from 5:30pm to 9:30pm. Shorts and T-shirt...It was great.

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"Knot Easy" 2000 Horizon 240 Volvo 5.7GS /SX
tow: 2017 Honda PILOT EXL-AWD
prev. boats:
'87 Chaparral 198CXL 4.3 OMC Cobra
'69 Jetstar 16ft Ski Boat, 115hp Yamaha
'68 Aluminum Jon Boat, 3hp Sears
'64 Water Wings

winterized mine yesterday and covered her up, next weekend I will pull the drive and the batteries and then i will wrap her with the tarp. Kinda glad its done...I have a crapload of winter projects to do in the house, not to mention one last cord of wood to split and stack to go.

It was a slow boating season for us only got 25 days on the boat. Had way too much going on. My stepdaughter(who lived with us) married a Marine and moved with him to Jacksonville,NC so the wife was either stressing about that or busy hanging with her before she left in late August.

Hopefully next year we will be on the boat more

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"Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes "

1996 238 Vista dlx "Casper's Toy Too"
2006 5.0GXI w/closed cooling, DP-sm 1.95 drive
Previous boat:
1998 Sundowner 205

Pulled mine today, powerwashed the bottom and am winterizing right now (taking a lunch break).
One odd thing, usually we have a ton of barnacles when we pull our boats, this time just slime that came right off. What a nice surprise (see you can tell how bad barnacles are when someone's happy that all they had was slime, LOL).....

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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

Any idea why? Did you use different bottom paint this year?

I am planning on winterizing this coming weekend. Although weather report looks like mid 60s on Saturday....might might a quick foliage run in the river with the kids as a last hurrah.

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1988 215 Sundowner 5.7L OMC

Nope used the same paint. The other odd thing was that my anodes were not deteriorated like they usually are. The boat was out of the water for about 2 weeks when I had to fix damage from the overheat but it was still in from late May to mid July, then back in 1st week of August. Normally if I didn't pull it in August to clean the drive and touch up the paint the drive would have a lot of barnacles on it. One year it looked like a beard. That's when I started painting it myself, the yard does a quick n dirty job but with the spray cans of Trilux it just does not work. The only way that paint kind of works, is if you brush on 2 coats.

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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

It's definitely over for sure. Snug as a bug, all put away until next year.

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2004 Four Winns 298 Vista
"Last Minute"

Took my outdrive off last night, no milky-ness or signs of water intrusion anywhere (hooray). And the grease I layered on in the spring still looked "fresh". Adding the anti-freeze Friday, then its sleepy-time for my baby.

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

Wrapped her last week and then wrapped my neighbors boat last evening. Drive pulled, antifreeze back filled, batteries out! Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Time to work on the honey-do list!

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-Tony
2016 Robalo R200 w/Yahama 200!

Previous boats:
2003 Four Winns 248 Vista - sold
1994 Sunbird Corsair 200 - sold
1980 Checkmate Predictor - sold

Hmm I think I'd get it away from those trees, memories of Sandy last year...
The boats that were kept in marinas on the South Shore of LI wound up all over the place (Sunrise Highway, RR tracks, people's yards, etc) because of the storm surge, some actually did better in the water, but some certainly did not. In my area (North Shore) the water didn't come up to the end of the beach parking lot so the boats pulled and left there were fine. Two boats sank during the storm, the rest were OK. I alway pull ours out because its very easy, roller trailer, bow rider, can do it yourself in about 15 min.

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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

I sold mine! Bizarre feeling but have to admit that not having to haul it, winterize it, store it, and pay for it all winter feels kinda nice. need to enjoy the freedom and decide what's next.

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Former owner of:
1996 Four Winns Horizon 200 5.8L VP
2006 Four Winns Horizon 260 8.1L VP
2007 Sea Ray 290 Sundancer

Current boat
2004 Sea Ray 290 Sun Sport Twin 350 Mags

Yeah, I saw that on CSR. Very nice Sea Ray BTW and what a great time of the year to get rid of her. It seems that everyone I talk to who got out of boating doesn't regret it one bit because of how much it does take (money, time, etc...). I have a son who is in pre-K and I need to start weighing the consequences of him not being involved in sports if we continue to boat almost every weekend (we boat year-around). I have a feeling that we will be going from weekend boaters to day boaters and then I have to question whether the expense is worth it. Good luck and enjoy the extra time on your hands (and $$$).

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Current Boat: 2000 Four Winns 298 Vista
Previous Boat: 2000 Carver 406MY