My current boat (Caliber 28) - is my first with an inboard diesel engine. Because the bottom was just painted this past spring by the PO, I have elected to keep the boat in the water this winter. So........... this is my first experience winterizing and I ran into something that I am not sure if I need to do right now or not. I have a YANMAR 2GMF20 with a raw water intake cooling system. It has what I believe is a PERKO 493 series bronze water intake strainer that looks like it definitely needs some cleaning. I think this strainer has a bleed screw on the bottom. Should I open the screw and try to get all of the water out? If I do that, I should probably take the opportunity to do the complete cleaning and replace the gaskets. Or, can I wait until warmer weather again to do the job. I did run antifreeze through the strainer when I did the basic engine winterization. If I do not do this now - is it in danger of cracking? I did not realize this was something that I maybe should have done.

On another note: I have a 1-2-BOTH battery switch and two 12V batteries wired in parallel. I think that they are wired such that each battery both starts the engine and runs any DC on the boat. I am starting to get into the habit of selecting each one on a regular schedule to keep them both charged while running the engine. For the winter, I would like to get a small (5-10 watt) solar battery charger to keep them topped off. Would I wire the charger so that the positive lead goes to the positive terminal of battery 1 and the negative lead goes to the negative terminal of battery 2? It that the correct way to do the wiring? It seems like that would work but I figured I would ask you guys who have probably done this before.

Thanks for your help!
Steve
Caliber 28 Solomons MD