This should get everyone going cos no doubt you all have your own rituals!
My 22 has a watermota seawolf ford cross flow, what I have done for the last 6 years is
Close water inlet valve, fill strainer with antifreeze now (this is where it gets tricky!)I have modified the pipework so that with the use of two valves I can bypass the water outlet and feed it back into the top of the strainer so I can circulate the water.
I then start the engine and run it with the water circulating, occiasionally letting some out (and into the exhaust bend) until the thermostat opens, once this happens I switch off fairly sure the antifreeze is acually in the block.
What do you think?(I'm mad probably)I originally came up with this method cos I thought it would be good to be able to go out in the winter, however in reality this has rarely happened.

The usual method is to pour Antifreeze into the strainer, and when the water turns Blue at the rear of the boat, switch her off....

Worked on No Regrets last year apparently...

I knew this would start a debate!
I probably thought for far too long about the antifrezze issue, however I think that if you just pour it in the strainer and run the engine all that happens is that antfreeze just goes straight into the exhaust manifold bypasses the head cos the thermostat is shut and then out to the exhaust, so very little ends up in the block, if everyone does it like this maybe thats why the broads dont freeze!

I think we waited until the thermostat was open before we added anti-freeze.  I don't remember looking to see if any was coming out the other end though.  That sounds like a good idea.

Mind you, we also had a little oil-filled electric heater in the engine bay all winter!

I'm not sure if it is a good idea if it comes out the other end! that means it isnt in the engine!
I thought about waiting for the thermostat to open, however I think it is only open momentarily so you have no way of knowing where the antifreeze ends up.
If you have a small heater in the engine bay no probs anyway.
We better stop all this anyway cos we might spread panic!
After all have you heard of anyone having a frozen block?
With the winters we have had recently we probably dont need antifreeze!

Not a frozen block, but a frozen water heater.  Last year, we forgot to drain the gas water heater above the sink and it froze and cracked the seal between 2 halves of a regulator thingy housing.

Fortunately, it seems to have been designed for people like me because the machine screws which hold it together have collapsible washers on them and so I just tightened it up a bit more to take account of the 'crush' in the washer and it's been fine since then.  

Good one Brain
Strange looking washers - they look like overize spring washers, I wonder why they were used?Maybe they were just not tight to bigin with.
So you need a heater for your water heater!

They're like a soft-metal version of a cup washer.  I'm pretty sure they're part of the design, 'cos they are used in several places around the 'innards' of the heater.  (You can just see some on the fitting above the word 'seam' -- there's one directly above the 'a')

What there also is, of course, is a knurled nut about 1.5" long which comes out of the bottom of the heater case.  That nut closes a pipe which is connected to that particular part of the heater so that you can drain it all.  A bit of a clue, eh?  D'oh!