Repair & maintenance guides

How to Inspect, Inflate and Replace Boat Trailer Tires

Check your trailer tires the way the pros do: the right type (ST), the right load range, the right cold pressure, and an honest look at their age. Tires are the number one reason boat trailers end up on the side of the highway.

How to Install a Backup Bilge Pump and High-Water Alarm

Add a second, larger automatic bilge pump mounted above the primary, with its own overboard discharge and a loud high-water alarm wired so it works even with the battery switch off, then test it every month so it buys you real time if the boat starts taking on water.

How to Install a Boat Radar Antenna (Radome or Open Array)

Plan and install a radar the right way: choose a mounting spot high enough and clear of obstructions, keep the beam above people's heads, give an open array room to spin, bolt it down with backing plates, route the cable without damaging it and seal every deck pass-through. Know when the job belongs to a certified installer.

How to Install an Inspection Port (Deck Plate) in a Deck or Bulkhead

Add a screw-out or pry-out deck plate so you can reach hidden nuts, wiring, hoses and through-hulls, or check a deck core for rot. Learn where it is safe to cut, how to pick and size the port, how to seal a cored deck with epoxy, and how to bed the ring so it never leaks.

How to Install and Set Up Forward-Facing (Live) Sonar

Mount a live sonar transducer such as Garmin LiveScope, Lowrance ActiveTarget or Humminbird MEGA Live on your trolling motor or a pole, give it clean power, route the cable so it survives stow and deploy, and dial in the basic settings. Most "bad picture" and "dead transducer" problems trace back to one of these steps.

How to Install EVA Foam Decking (SeaDek-Style Pads) on Your Boat

Closed-cell foam decking makes a hard fiberglass deck grippy and comfortable underfoot. Learn when a peel-and-stick DIY job makes sense, how to template, cut and prep, the temperature and gap rules, how to lay pads without trapped air, and how to clean, repair and eventually remove them.

How to Keep a Boat Maintenance Log and Organize Your Receipts

Set up a simple maintenance log that records the date, engine hours, work done, parts and who did it, and keep receipts and photos organized. Good records help with warranty and insurance claims, show buyers the boat was cared for and reveal wear patterns before something fails.

How to Keep Mice and Rodents Off Your Stored Boat

Mice love a stored boat: dry, quiet and full of soft nesting material and tasty wire insulation. Learn how to remove what attracts them, close their way in, choose deterrents and traps that actually work, avoid the risks of poison, and check the wiring safely in spring.

How to Keep Your Boat Fridge, Freezer or Icebox Cold (and Off Your Batteries' Back)

Most boat fridge problems are not a dead compressor: they are trapped heat, low voltage, leaky seals or too much frost. Learn the owner checks for air-cooled, water-cooled and keel-cooled units, how to estimate power draw, and how to store the system for winter.

How to Keep Your Boat in the Water Over Winter (De-Icers, Covers and Checks)

Wintering afloat can be safe if you still winterize every water system, keep the bilge pump and batteries working, use a de-icer correctly on a GFCI-protected circuit, respect the shock and thin-ice risks, and visit the boat regularly.

How to Launch and Retrieve Your Boat Alone

A repeatable routine for putting a trailer boat in and taking it out by yourself: what to do in the staging area, how to rig one long line so you can control the boat from the dock, when power loading is off-limits, and the safety habits that keep you, your boat and the next boater out of trouble.

How to Load Your Boat Safely: Capacity Plate, Balance and Stability

Too much weight, or the right weight in the wrong place, is behind most small-boat capsizes and swampings. Learn to read the capacity plate (persons, weight and horsepower), add up your real load, balance it side to side and fore and aft, and adjust for rough water, water aboard and towing riders.

How to Maintain an Anchor Windlass and Inspect and Mark Your Anchor Rode

Keep your electric windlass working with a seasonal clean-and-grease, sort out a dead or slow windlass from the breaker and solenoid to the motor, and inspect, mark and splice your chain and rope rode. Your anchor is a safety system; this guide keeps every link of it ready.

How to Match Gelcoat Color for Small Repairs

Get a chip or screw-hole repair to blend in with your hull instead of standing out as a bright patch. Learn to polish first so you see the real color, find your builder's color code or a matched gelcoat, tint by tiny steps, test cured samples in daylight, and allow for sun fading.

How to Mount Rod Holders, Fish Finders, Cleats and Antennas Without Causing Leaks

Add accessories to your boat the right way, with through-bolts, backing plates, sealed core and proper wire pass-throughs, so every new hole stays dry and strong. Also learn where you should never drill.

How to Paint a Boat Bilge (Prep, Paint Choice and What to Leave Bare)

A freshly painted bilge is easier to keep clean and makes small fuel, oil, coolant and water leaks easy to spot. Learn how to degrease and sand, pick between alkyd bilge paint and epoxy coatings, ventilate safely, and keep paint off the parts that must stay bare.

How to Paint Your Boat's Topsides (Roll and Tip)

When the gelcoat above the waterline is too chalky or crazed to polish back, a one-part or two-part polyurethane paint can bring back the shine. This guide covers choosing the paint, prep, weather windows, roll-and-tip technique and the safety gear two-part paints demand.

How to Prepare for a Free Vessel Safety Check

Volunteers from the Coast Guard Auxiliary and America's Boating Club will inspect your boat's safety gear for free, with no ticket if something is missing. Learn how to request a Vessel Safety Check, what the examiner looks at, how to get your boat ready and what to do with the fix list.

How to Prepare Your Boat for a Hurricane or Tropical Storm

Make a written storm plan before the season, then haul out or secure the boat with doubled lines and chafe gear, strip off everything that catches wind, and check it safely after the storm. Never ride out a hurricane aboard.

How to Prepare Your Boat for an Insurance or Condition Survey

Get ready for a marine survey your insurer or lender asked for: what a SAMS or NAMS surveyor looks at, the common findings you can fix beforehand (hose clamps, seacocks, bilge, fire extinguishers, wiring), the paperwork to have ready, and how to handle the recommendations afterward.

How to Prevent and Remove Mold and Mildew on Your Boat

Stop the musty smell and black spots before they start. Find and fix the water source, keep air moving, control humidity safely, and clean mold off gelcoat, vinyl and cabin surfaces with products that won't damage them.

How to Protect Your Boat, Motor and Trailer From Theft

Practical, layered security for boat owners: outboard locks, trailer coupler and wheel locks, disabling the boat, GPS trackers, engraving and marking, photo and serial number records, safer storage, and exactly what to report (HIN and serial numbers) if your boat is stolen.

How to Re-Cover Boat Cushions and Seats (DIY Sewing vs. Upholstery Shop)

Cracked, faded or split cushion covers can be replaced without buying new seats. Learn how to choose marine vinyl or acrylic fabric, which thread survives the sun, how to use the old cover as a pattern, where zippers and drain vents go, and when a walking-foot machine at home makes sense versus paying an upholstery shop.

How to Read Buoys and Channel Markers: Red Right Returning and the U.S. Aids to Navigation System

Learn what the red and green buoys, daymarks and lights are telling you: red right returning, nuns and cans, odd and even numbers, preferred channel, safe water, isolated danger, the orange-and-white regulatory and information markers, the yellow symbols on the Intracoastal Waterway and how the Western Rivers system differs. Based on the Coast Guard's U.S. Aids to Navigation System rules (33 CFR Part 62).