There’s a moment every season when the boat tells on you. A faint salt crust at a hose clamp, a stiff seacock you meant to exercise, a battery that suddenly needs more sweet talk than usual. None of it is exciting, which is exactly why it matters.
I’ve learned to treat “seasonal” as whatever changes the boat’s workload next: haul-out, launch, heat, cold, long passage, long sit. The calendar doesn’t care if your zincs are gone or your fuel’s starting to grow hair.
The trick is simple: do the right jobs at the right time, with the right parts already aboard, and finish with a quick check under load so the first real test isn’t out past the sea buoy.