Boat & Gear
The engine is the system a boat can least do without and the one most often serviced by the calendar instead of the manual. These guides cover outboards, inboards and marine diesels: service intervals, fuel and filters, cooling and impellers, and laying the engine up for winter.
3 guides
Start here
Fuel, flushing, fogging and gear oil — the lay-up steps in order, and why each one matters.
Read the guideDewinterizing is winterizing run backwards: batteries, fuel, antifreeze out, impeller and oil before the engine; hull, anodes, seacocks and prop before launch; then a first start with someone watching the exhaust for water within 30 seconds.
September 26, 2026
Kill cord, neutral, vent, primer bulb and fuel age before any tool comes out, then fuel, spark and compression in order. Most dead outboards were stopped wrong, not started wrong: fuel left in the carburettor is the whole story.
September 26, 2026
An outboard is not a small inboard. Almost all winter damage comes from two things — water that cannot drain out, and fuel that degrades where it sits. The order the jobs go in and why it matters, the storage rule that cracks castings when people get it wrong, what the gear oil is telling you (and the fishing line behind the propeller that usually caused it), and where two-stroke and four-stroke part company.
August 20, 2026