Seasonal storage & winterization
The boat is on the hard, winterized in the yard from October to April. The water is off — now the risks are electrical, environmental, and slow. The point of monitoring is being told before spring, not discovering it in spring.
What can go wrong
The quiet months are when things fail unnoticed.
The battery bank dies over winter
Batteries self-discharge, or a trickle charger quietly fails. Come spring the bank is ruined and you didn't know until you tried to start.
Storage-yard power drops
The pedestal or shed circuit trips and nobody tells you. Your tender stops tending weeks before you'd ever notice.
Water gets in under the cover
Rain, snowmelt, or a failed cover puts water where it shouldn't be — for months, with no one walking the yard.
A hard freeze finds un-winterized plumbing
The classic burst-pipe surprise. No sensor is a substitute for properly winterizing the water system.
How DockNeighbor covers it
Each risk maps to something that ships today, with the plan it needs called out honestly.
Watch the bank all season
A voltage sensor on the bank reports right through the layup and alarms on a threshold or a fast drop — a failing charger becomes a notification, not a spring surprise. It runs for years on its own battery, with no Wi-Fi on the boat to keep alive all winter.
Know the instant storage power fails
A shore power sensor on the yard circuit tells you the moment it drops and when it is back. The one-box unit on the bank watches shore power and a bilge float as well, in a single device slot.
Catch water intrusion under the cover
A leak sensor in the bilge or at a low point catches rain and snowmelt that got past the cover. Sealed, battery-powered, and it reaches the station from under the tarp — the alarm reaches your phone, then the friends you marked if you haven't answered.
See the whole-winter curve
Hosted history (2 years on Dockside, 3 years on Weekender, 5 years on Voyager) gives you the voltage trend across the entire layup — useful for deciding when a bank is finally due for replacement.
The setup
Small battery-powered sensors, bought once. If your marina runs a DockNeighbor Station, they are the whole install.
Recommended hardware
- Battery, bilge and shore power in one box — battery, bilge float and shore power, one device slot~$62
- Water leak sensor — low point under the cover~$26
- Battery voltage sensor — if you only want the bank watched~$54–88
- Shore power outlet switch — plugs into a cabin outlet on the yard circuit~$30
Prices are approximate retail. If the yard runs a DockNeighbor Station, nothing of yours needs power or internet all winter except the sensors' own batteries. If it doesn't, the M2-4G with your own SIM on a yard outlet needs nothing from the yard.
No station within range? Bring your own aboard: the M2 ($99) on the boat’s internet, or the M2-4G ($149) with your own SIM. Which one, and where to buy →
Recommended plan
Dockside — $20/yr per vehicle
For the winter, Dockside is the sweet spot: the one-box unit plus a leak sensor fit its 2 sensors and cover battery, power and water, with alerts on your phone and by email and 2 years of hosted history, so a dying battery or a dead pedestal reaches you without you thinking to look. The plan is per vehicle and billed yearly; cancel and the boat drops back to Free.
Monitoring is an early-warning aid, not a guarantee — always winterize your water system properly.