Relaunching your boat in spring: the checklist

A spring relaunch is prepared ashore. Once the boat is hanging in the travel-lift slings, it is too late to change an anode, grease a seacock or discover a crack in the rudder. This checklist follows the logical order: what you check with the boat out of the water, what you bring back into service on board, what you watch on launch day, and then on the first outing. It complements the winterising and recommissioning list, which covers what was closed, drained and disconnected in autumn. The builder’s manual and the manual of each piece of equipment always have the last word.

1. First of all: reread your autumn notes

The best tool in spring is the list you made in autumn: what was noted as worn, what was removed, what went away for servicing. Take it out (or reread the boat’s log) and get the parts before booking the lift slot: an impeller, a belt, anodes, a set of filters. A yard works to a schedule; a part missing on the day often means a week lost.

2. Ashore: the hull and everything that goes through it

This is the most important part, because nothing below the waterline can be checked once the boat is afloat.

• Hull: clean, no new blisters, no impact or chipped gelcoat; antifouling redone if it is due (see hull cleaning and antifouling). Blisters that appear deserve an opinion before launching: see blisters and osmosis.
• Anodes (shaft, saildrive, rudder, trim tabs, bow thruster): replace them as soon as they are half consumed. An anode that is intact after a season is not necessarily good news: it may be painted over, poorly bonded, or made of a metal unsuited to the water the boat sails in.
• Through-hulls and seacocks: every seacock must open and close by hand, without forcing. Check the condition of the metal (a pinkish tint on bronze is a sign of corrosion), grease them at the right interval, and check the clips and hoses connected to them. A seized seacock is dealt with ashore, never afloat.
• Stern gland: packing redone if it has hardened or if the boat dripped too much last year; lip seal or face seal checked according to the manufacturer’s instructions; bellows neither cracked nor porous.
• Shaft and cutless bearing (the rubber bearing that guides the shaft where it leaves the hull): side play you can feel by hand means a worn bearing.
• Propeller: blades without impact or twist, nut and split pin in place; a folding or variable-pitch propeller is worked and greased according to its manual.
• Rudder: no abnormal play in the bearings, no crack or water seeping out (a rudder that “weeps” after several days ashore has water in it).
• Saildrive leg: oil level and appearance (milky = water getting in), condition of the seal around the leg and date it was last replaced. See saildrive: vibrations and milky oil.
• Depth sounder, log, sensors: cleaned; the log paddle wheel refitted and turning freely.
• Keel: no crack at the hull-keel joint; on a bolted keel, any doubt justifies a professional’s opinion.

3. Deck, rigging and sails

• Standing rigging: swages without broken strands or cracks, turnbuckles pinned, chainplates without rust or signs of leaking. If the mast was unstepped, this is the moment for a full check of the masthead before stepping it again.
• Running rigging: halyards back in place of the messenger lines, sheets and lines without wear at the chafe points.
• Sails: stitching, bolt ropes, reinforcements, the genoa’s UV strip; the furler turns freely before you hoist the sail on it (see jammed genoa furler).
• Winches, blocks, stanchions, lifelines, pulpits: rinsed, greased, fixings tight; no slack lifeline.
• Portlights and hatches: supple seals, no sign of leaks inside.
• Ground tackle: anchor shackle closed and moused, chain marked, windlass turning, bitter end (where the chain is attached to the boat) in good condition.

4. The engine

If the oil change was done in autumn, as is recommended, spring is mostly a matter of getting it running again. If not, now is the time. The detailed due dates are in the inboard engine maintenance guide.

• Oil and oil filter change if it was not done in autumn; oil level in any case, and gearbox oil.
• Raw-water pump impeller refitted or replaced (every year or 200 hours), with a new gasket; keep a spare impeller on board.
• Belt: tension, cracks, black dust around the pulley.
• Raw-water strainer closed and watertight, hose clips tight, heat-exchanger anode checked.
• Fuel system: drain water from the separator, filters at their due date, bleed the air if the system was opened.
• Outboard: lower-unit oil, spark plugs, fresh fuel, kill cord present and attached.

Never run an inboard engine dry without cooling water: the impeller is destroyed within seconds. Ashore, you only start it with a water supply provided for the purpose, as the manual describes.

5. Electrics, fresh water, gas

• Batteries: fully charged, clean and tight terminals, resting voltage noted (a battery that no longer holds its charge after the winter shows up now; see batteries that run flat).
• Power back on circuit by circuit: navigation lights (all of them, including the anchor light), manual and automatic bilge pump, electronics, VHF (test on a working channel, not on 16).
• Fresh water: tanks rinsed if a winterising product was used, system back under pressure, taps closed, look for leaks; water heater filled before switching it on.
• Marine toilets: rinsed, seacocks worked, pump seals supple.
• Gas: date of the hose and regulator, leak test with soapy water (never with a flame), solenoid valve and detector if there is one.

6. Safety: dates above all

• Hand flares and rockets: expiry date legible on each one.
• Fire extinguishers: checked at the manufacturer’s interval, gauge in the green.
• Liferaft: date of the next service; inflatable lifejackets: cartridge and firing head within date.
• Beacon, handheld VHF, waterproof torch: batteries within date, tested according to the instructions.
• Full safety kit for the area you will sail in: see mandatory safety equipment.

7. Launch day

• Hull drain plug back in (if the boat has one): it is the classic oversight.
• Once in the water, before the slings are removed: go below, open the floorboards, check the stern gland, through-hulls, saildrive leg and transducers. Open the seacocks one by one, watching each connection.
• Start the engine and check for water at the exhaust within seconds (otherwise stop it: see no water at the exhaust), then the temperature after a few minutes.
• Clean engagement of forward and reverse, rudder free from stop to stop, bilge pump switching on.
• Come back to check the bilge an hour later, then the next day: a small leak does not show straight away (see water in the bilge).

8. The first outing

Choose calm weather, close to shelter, with someone on board. It is a test sail: you adjust the rig tension while heeled, hoist each sail, run the engine for half an hour at different revs while watching the temperature, and check the compass, depth sounder and autopilot. Back in port, check the bilge, the engine compartment and the levels. Whatever is wrong gets written down straight away: it is the list for the next DIY weekend.

9. Keeping a record

Anodes changed, impeller replaced, engine hours noted, liferaft date, photo of the hull before launching: recorded in the Hullteam log with their invoices, these jobs become a dated history that the buyer will be able to read on the day of the sale — see which proofs of maintenance count.