There's a lot more to laying up than simply phoning the yard and making an appointment for the boat to be lifted out of the water. The winter isn't just the period when you don't sail, it's more importantly the season when all the work necessary to ensure trouble-free sailing next year is done.
For a small minority, this also means a call to the yard, with a list of jobs to be booked in, done by the professionals, and added to the bill. But the vast majority of yacht owners will want to do most if not all the work themselves. Partly, it's a question of cost.
More importantly, it's the best way of getting to know and understand the boat and all its systems. At sea, you can't call the AA when things go wrong. You have to be able to fix them yourself, or you may be in trouble. So it pays to get to know how everything works while the boat is safely on dry land.
In theory boat maintenance is divided into two seasons: laying up - preparing for the winter, and fitting out - preparing for the spring. In practice the two processes blend seamlessly into one another.
Essentially, laying up involves taking stuff off the boat, and fitting out involves putting it back again. The best approach is to take things off the boat and then immediately do whatever cleaning, repair or maintenance is found to be necessary, so that fitting out becomes a simple matter of reassembly.
Almost invariably, by the end of the season, there are a few jobs needing to be tackled: a leaky hatch to be resealed, a sticky rope clutch to be rebuilt or replaced, and so on. You may also be planning some upgrades: swapping that old VHF set for a new DSC model, perhaps, or replacing the outdated furling gear with something more robust. It's a good idea to make a list - write the outstanding jobs in the log when you think of them - to make sure that none gets overlooked.
Obviously jobs that can only be done while the boat is out of the water have priority, once ashore: you can deal with the leaky hatch when you're back afloat, if you have to. So get to work straight away on anything that might delay your relaunch if it isn't fixed in time.
It might be tempting to think there's no deadline pressure, and starting work can be safely put off for a while yet: relaunch is still months away. But don't forget the vagaries of the climate. If you rely on getting everything done at the last minute, you can also expect pouring rain for those precious last few weekends before the planned launch date.
The first rule of laying up/fitting out is to make the most of good weather whenever you can. The second is to order replacement parts or any new gear you want to install as soon as the boat comes out of the water, to make sure your launch is not held up by late delivery.
Getting the boat ready for the new season is a bit like doing the decorating: it's the preparation, not the job itself, that takes most of the time. So start that preparation as soon as the boat is out of the water, and you'll have a much easier time in the spring.
It's a good idea to start by emptying out all the lockers, and giving them a wipe round inside. It will save you an awful lot of work at launch time, because there will be no black mould spots or rust rings that have festered during the winter to deal with.
And that principle applies to the whole process: the sooner you get started, the less work you will ultimately have to do.
Look out for TheMainSail guide to laying up: a series of guides to winter maintenance, full of hints and tips on caring for your boat, which will appear on the site over the coming days
