Two questions

[chriscallender]

A couple of questions I've been contemplating that perhaps the great experts can help with

1) I'm leaving the boat afloat this winter (in Port Solent with shorepower). Is there any risk of a raw water cooled engine (Bukh) freezing & should I bung some kind of greenhouse type heater into the engine compartment (possibly on a timer)? Or is it enough that the boat is sitting in seawater which is warmer than the air temp? What do people without power do? Is there really any risk to the engine?

2) Next year I'm thinking of putting the boat on a drying pontoon berth. Its a Seal 28 with a lifting keel which lowers through a fixed keel stub. I've dried the boat out on mud occasionally before and she's been kept for past 2 years on a mooring that occasionally dries to mud at the very bottom of big spring tides. Is the lifting keel likely to be a problem if she dries out more frequently? I've heard they can get jammed up with mud and the guys at the boatyard told me that there's no job worse than having to scrub a lifting keel boat kept on mud. Is it placing undue strain on the hull/keelbolts/rudder skeg to get pushed into the mud on every tide?

Thanks for any advice.

Chris

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[Cactus]

We have/had a BUKH DV10, and it spent a few winters afloat. No memories of any freezing - it is salt water after all. It never does any harm to let it tick over once every week or two (in gear of course).



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[charles_reed]

I used to keep my Seal 22 (with the very same keel) on a drying mooring and never had any problems with it - pressure washing should get all the mud out, tho' I have to agree any boat kept on a mud mooring is more difficult to clean off, both hull and underwater .

Unless we have a major cold snap you're unlikely to suffer from freezing - however it is a good idea to winterise ant raw water engine by running antifreeze mixture in from a bucket into which you put the inlet off the intake. this is more to prevent corrosion than freezing.

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[poggy]

Hi,

I have a Gib'Sea 76 with a lifting keel and when it arrived by lorry it was dropped straight into a semi tidal berth on the Hamble. The first time I went to use it, the keel wouldn't drop. In the end I had to have it lifted out (£138) and as soon as I pushed a rod into the mud in the stub keel the seal broke and the keel dropped down straight away. I spoke to the surveyor and he suggested that to stop a vacuum forming with the mud in the stub keel, I should leave the keel slightly down so it poked out of the bottom of the stub. I marked the rope used to haul up the keel so that I knew how much it stuck out.

Since doing this I have had no problems at all (10 months). The boat is also equipped with a couple of fittings for drying out legs, so it is designed to dry out even on a hard surface. In the mud it is stable without legs.

As yours will only dry out now and again, I shouldn't worry about any stress on the keel.

Andy

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[paulrossall]

I used my mates Evolution 26 for a season on a drying mooring. Keel box did get mud in it but you have open access to the top and can get rid of the mud. Biggest problem was mud blocking the toilet exit and getting very dry/stoggy. Only way to shift it was to undo seacock when floating and work quickly!

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[PeterGibbs]

Even afloat your engine is at risk if the cooling galleries are filled with other than antifreeze. The consequences are to be counted in thousands£. Either ensure that all water is removed from the system or it is filled with antifreeze. With my previous Bukh I awlays flushed the galleries with preservative (Volvo winterising)mixture and then emptied the lot for the winter.

Your second question is rather self-answering. You know the risk from the conditions you will expose the boat to. Is the potential repair bill worth the savings from wintering you boat in this way?

PWG

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[poggy]

Hi,

If the engine and components are below water level the engine is not at risk from freezing at all, it is a physical impossibility in our climate. The big risk is if salt water sits in the engine all winter, if you use the boat then it's not a real problem.

Poggy

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[oldestgit]

Hi Chris.

A couple of years ago I left mine in for the winter but had it on the river at Brundal just away from the East coast. It had an excellent, Volvo Penta MD7B raw cooled, I had shore power and put a 1KW. greenhouse heater with frost stat for safety in the engine bay.

I wound up with a cracked block... During the worst freezing spell we had for a few years the shore power was somehow off and when I returned to the boat (every few weeks) and ran the engine I noticed I had a small squirt ... But it was an expensive one.

I replaced the engine and re-conditioned a VP 2002, but this time a freshwater one with that old friend Antifreeze.

Needless to say be cautious as many might say it can't happen, but when it does its your dosh that gets spent and quite liberally.

Have fun...... Me.

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[chriscallender]

Thanks for all the advice... I should have been a bit clearer and mentioned that I am using the boat over the winter when weather permits... so flushing with A/F isn't really an option for now, I'll pop an 'icle heater into the engine compartment with a thermostat and hope the power doesn't trip off! After Chrimbo/New Year I'll not be using the boat much so will flush with antifreeze then.

About drying out on mud next year, I think Peter you put your finger on it when you said I'd answered my own question.

Thanks

Chris

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[andy_wilson]

Water is specially designed so that large bodies of it freeze on the surface and remain fluid beneath.

This probably accounts for life on Earth.

However boat engines sit completely surrounded by air and could easily freeze solid during a cold spell.

Unlikely, but possible.

I think the last time there was widespread freezing of sea water around UK coasts was in the early sixties.

Anywhere with South or West in it is unlikely to freeze due to the Gulf Stream.

East Coast carries a slim but nevertheless real risk.

(Sometime in our lifetime!).

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