Boat prep for freezing cold

That's basically it. Drain all water. Cover it so you don't accumulate more.

I've done full winterization on inboard and jet skis. On outboard, trim down and make sure the lower unit is dry.

Right. Forgot about petcocks, etc for livewells, raw water wash down, wtc

I'll be using a halogen work light on my inboard tomorrow. Not going through the hassle of winterizing for 1 or 2 really cold nights each year

I just make sure motor is trimmed down to drain all water out.

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Would suck to have a pump or fitting crack bc that could cause a big issue on the water if you don’t know it cracked

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Cracked from a different issue, but almost sank my dad's boat about 15yrs ago, because of this. Livewell was pumping water in the hull and had no idea. Was not fun

Wouldn’t be a bad idea to pull some marine antifreeze into the block (if outboard) with some muffs.

As someone that boats on l erie thru Christmas (for ducks) all sound advice. The other thing is to raise front of boat high and open drain plug to let water out of bilge.
One thing i do is when i pull my boat out of ramp is i run the motor for 30 sec to help get water out of impeller.

Any advice for pontoons?

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I would go crank motors on trailer for 15-30 sec before a freeze with boat on trailer and it caused 0 issues.

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But why? An impeller assembly consists of a plate with an opening in it, under a star shaped piece of rubber (impeller), and metal cup which is upside down over the rubber impeller

Water naturally flows right out of the assembly upon outboard leaving the water due to the plate in the impeller housing being open.

You turning on the motor, which spins the rubber impeller out of water, does nothing for draining out the impeller housing assembly. It can only damage the rubber at that point. You're lucky nothing has happened but people have spun the impeller by running them out of water.

Just trying to help out

Make sure there’s no water collected and pipework or T-top legs. A good fabrication guy will put little drain holes drilled in the pipework, check those with a paperclip or something to be sure they aren’t clogged. Found this one out the hard way about 10 years ago.

I also use a shop vac to be sure there is no water left and below deck plumbing.