Spring commissioning can be exciting, if you envision the good times ahead as you ready the boat for the season. But whatever you are thinking about as you scrub and repair, it will be a lot of work.

Bring the boat's systems back to life–engine, electrical, water, galley, safety gear and many more–costs both time and money. And in both cases, the resources are well spent.

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A thorough overhaul prior to launch allows you to focus on the boat in ways you may not be able to during the season, when it is in the water and in constant use. The inspections you perform are more likely to catch ongoing problems before they become costly repairs. The maintenance you undertake will prevent new problems from taking root.

As an added measure, you can request a vessel safety check from the United States Power Squadrons or the Coast Guard Auxiliary after launching.

The result will be an increased margin of safety and a measure of confidence in your boat that will last all season. You will also get a strong sense of how you did last fall. A boat that was laid up properly will be easier to commission in the spring.

If you start with a well–conceived plan, stay organized and enlist help from family, friends and professionals when you need it, you can maintain the vessel and your sanity.

UNWRAPPING THE BOAT

The first order of business is to unwrap the boat, meaning you'll remove the tarps, shrink–wrap or framework in use as winter protection.

If you shrink–wrapped the boat, unwrapping is simply a matter of cutting off the covering. Be careful with that knife, though. It makes no sense to protect the boat all winter only to scratch it now. Most marinas will have a dedicated area for recycling shrink–wrap and you should use it.

If your cover uses one or more tarps, the job is a little more complicated. If the cover worked well, you might consider documenting it with a digital camera, so you won't be forced to reinvent the system in the fall.

Clean the tarp, then fold it up. If you had tie–down lines specifically dedicated to the winter cover, mark them accordingly and store them with the tarp in a dry place, away from mice and other critters.

Some boats use a framework, which adds more work still. Before disassembling it, go through and mark each joint with a code. That way, reassembling the frame next year is a simple matter of mating piece X with piece Y at joint Z. Digital photos won't hurt here, either.

After the unwrapping, we'll start outside the boat and work our way inside. You may decide to tackle things in a different order–pr to hire some jobs out–but what follows should give you some ideas about the work involved and how to complete it.

DECK AND COCKPIT

Before starting on the deck, take a quick look below in the cabin, bilges and engine compartment to see if there were any obvious leaks over the winter. This may indicate a need for rebedding deck hardware or resealing hatches and ports.