Winterising a narrowboat: the lay-up checklist

A plain guide, in order · Last checked October 2026 · The interactive list below is the same one the app keeps in her book

Winter finds the one job you skipped. Boats have been frozen in for eleven straight days on the northern channels; a split pipe or a dead battery bank turns a quiet January into a towpath rescue. The list is short, the order matters, and every hour of it is cheaper than the first surveyor’s call-out.

The list, in working order

Tick as you go — the ticks live in your browser, nothing is sent anywhere, and no account is asked for.

0 of 11 done

• Drain the water tank and pipework before the first hard frost
• A drop of culinary antifreeze (the pink stuff) in the traps
• Run the diesel heater on its own before lay-up — it hates gumming up
• Clean the stove out and check the flue
• Fill the diesel tank to the neck — less room for condensation
• Batteries on a trickle (solar or shore) or fully disconnected
• Oil change before lay-up — or promise her a monthly run
• Skin tank antifreeze strength checked
• Covers on, ropes off the ground, fenders tucked in
• Bilge dry, everything loose stowed or taken home
• Lifting out? Book the dry dock — blacking season is now

The whys, briefly

Water first. Everything else on the list can wait a week; the drain-down cannot. Pipes, calorifier, pump — drained before the first hard frost, with the pink stuff only in the traps. Automotive antifreeze stays nowhere near a fresh water system.

The heater and the stove. A diesel heater left idle with fuel in its lines gums up precisely by spring. Run it on its own before lay-up. The stove gets its ash out and its flue looked at — chimney fires are a winter story nobody wants to be in.

Diesel to the neck. Condensation forms in the empty space, and winter is long. A full tank, a dose of biocide if her tank has history.

Batteries. Trickle or disconnect — a bank that sits flat until March usually pays for its own funeral.

The dry dock, if she is coming out. Blacking season is now, and dry docks book up as the frost approaches. If the hull is due, this is the cheapest combination of jobs you will ever get: out of the water once, both done.

And after the list

The list is the season’s half of it. The other half is remembering, in March, what was done in October — which is her job, not yours. In the app, everything you tick here can go into her book with one sentence in the chat, and she will remember it until spring.

Questions people ask

When should I winterise?

Before the first hard frost — October into November on most of the network. The drain-down is the deadline that matters.

Antifreeze in the water system?

No — drain instead. Pink culinary antifreeze in the traps only, never automotive.

Why fill the diesel tank?

Less empty space, less condensation, less winter water in the fuel.

Batteries: on or off?

Trickle (solar or shore) or fully disconnected, checked monthly either way.

Do it myself or pay the boatyard?

Most of it is owner work. The oil change and the skin-tank strength are the two commonly handed over; some yards do the whole lay-up for a fixed price.

A plain guide from boaters’ software, not a surveyor’s instruction. Your boat, your engine, your call — and your yard knows her better than any page does.