What commissioning covers
The winterization gets reversed. Drains closed, antifreeze flushed, fogging cleared on the first run. Batteries go back in, get load-tested (not just charged), and the terminals get cleaned. Belts, hoses and the impeller get a look. Fluids get checked and topped up. Then the engine's run up and watched, and the steering, throttle, shift, bilge pump and safety gear all get checked before the boat sees water.
Why last autumn matters in May
Most of what goes wrong in spring got set up in October. Fuel that wasn't stabilized. A drain nobody opened, a battery put away half-charged, gear lube with water already in it. None of it makes a sound all winter. Then you get to the ramp.
Booking around ice-out
The ice-out date moves every year. They've been keeping the record since 1888: earliest March 17, 2024, latest May 12, 1888. So booking's about the queue, not the calendar. The work gets scheduled before the ice goes, and the boat's ready when it does.
Load-testing, not just charging
The most common spring shortcut: put a charger on the battery, see twelve and a half volts, call it good. Voltage at rest tells you almost nothing about a battery that's sat all winter. A sulfated one can read perfectly, then collapse the second a starter asks it for a few hundred amps.
A load test is the difference, and it takes minutes. It also saves more wasted diagnosis than any other check, because a weak battery can pass itself off as a dozen other faults: slow cranking, gauges acting strange, electronics resetting, an engine that starts on the trailer and then won't at the dock.
Everything else in commissioning works the same way. Test things the way they'll actually be used. The engine gets run and watched, not just started. Steering and shift get moved all the way through their travel. The bilge pump gets cycled. If it hasn't been tested, it hasn't been checked.