Okay, so here is my scenario. Looks like we are having an unusually strong cold front coming in this weekend. I have my boat in a slip on a mountain lake. Temperatures Saturday and Sunday(the coldest days) are forecast to be the following 52/34 & 49/34. The boat is “in the water” which is approx. 58 degrees at present(assume this will help insulate).
Do you think it is advisable to pull the boat out of the water and bring it down to the Valley, which will not get anywhere near freezing? On the other hand, do you feel I am worrying over nothing?
For those saying, “It isn’t even going to get to freezing”……I will assume that weather.com “could” be off 5 degrees and wouldn’t be thrown off the net…..
It would have to be a hard freeze for a few days to have a problem. If it were Me I wouldn't worry about it to much.
If your really worried about it go up and fire it up in the early evening and let it get up to operating temp. It's amazing how long a block will stay hot in a bilge.
The boat would have to get below freezing for some time to hurt. I'd be careful with the several days part - My dad had a tractor freeze over night when I was a kid - temperature went from 40 to 25 overnight block was cracked wide open by 8 am. The tractor was setting in an open barn and there was no protection around the engine like there is in a boat.
EJ, You need to take it out and come down to St. George for the weekend. Even with the cold front, we are going to be 80+ degrees.
I think it is going to be windy, so it actually may be a bad boating weekend.
I suspect that your block will be fine. If someone could get access to an extension cord, you could do the old light bulb in the engine compartment thing.
I don't winterize my boat in California. During the winter we have many nights that get down in the 20's. Even when I wake up with lawns being completely frosted over and windshields frosted over the boat motor does not get close to freezing. One night about 4 months ago it was down in the low 20's and I started to get nervous so I went out to the boat around midnight and put my drop light in the motor box. What really surprised me was how warm the motor compartment was when I popped the cover, it felt really comfortable, maybe 40-50 degrees. Since I was already there I put the drop light in anyway.
Based on my experience you only need to worry when the temperature in the daytime stays below freezing for more than a couple days with little sun.
i didn't winterize my boat this year. light in the box kept it warm on cold nights. i think you're fine, but i'd probably put one in there just to be safe
No power at my slip, I have a little one.....they only have power for the cruiser slips. 
In fact, I thought every day but today is going to stink....
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