When do you lift out?

Pyramid said:
Lift out - stay in??
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Seriously though SHOULD I get the boat out for five months a year? Is this something that I SHOULD do - allowing the boat to 'dry'. Boat's fourteen years old and a plastic AWB, does she need time out of the water?
No one has offered a definitive answer to this. What do you reckon?
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If it's 14 years old and has not developed osmosis yet, then it's probably pretty safe. Your age also comes into the equation, you know! Our boat is four years old and we're 60 - I figure that I'll be lucky to be able to sail for another 20 years and the boat will survive that long irrespective of how long it is out of the water each year. It's an expensive thing to own - and the price is pretty independent of how much you use it - so I want it in the water as close to full time as I can achieve. Hence, it will come out at the end of this month for a couple of weeks for antifouling and some necessary maintenance, but it will be back in and in regular use again before the end of October...
 
During refit years we came out in September and back in mid April. Last two years we stayed in until spring then came out for a week or two. Due to work and availability of lifts, we left it till June this year and I thinking about doing the same againmas next year I'll do the topsides and a few other jobs at the same time. Now we're in the grove I reckon we can do what's needed in one dry week ashore and one fine week afloat, plus minor jobs on rainy or windless weekends.
 
Our insurance obliges us to lift out once a year but, going from memory and without digging out the papers, the policy does not specify when to lift out or for how long. We generally lift out late in the year and go back in the water in the Spring, usually mid to late March.

We are on a swinging mooring, so obviously no shore power. If we left our last boat unheated and without a dehumidifier in the winter, we found that, even with some ventilation, black mould would develop on some of the interior surfaces. I guess if she'd been sailed regularly there may have been less of a problem, but with wet and windy winters where temperatures are often within the 0-5 degree range, these are ideal for mould and the chances are the boat will remain unused.

I recall, with much fondness, winter cruises in the early 2000s where we had sunny days but with frost or ice on the deck. However, recent winters have been mostly mild, but wet and windy.

Perhaps awol has the answer - sail, anchor or moor for "the season" and then rent a cheap pontoon berth with shore power for much of the winter prior to a brief lift out.
 
Aja said:
My insurance says that they are happy for me to stay on a swinging mooring at Kames for 12 months of the year..... oh dear, oh dear.
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Which Kames? I have to be off my mooring in Kames Bay, Bute, from the end of October till the end of March. Bearing in mind what winter easterlies can be like there, I feel no desire to challenge them. In practicem very few boats go back onto swinging moorings there before May, though a few go in earlier and spend a month in teh marina.
 
pvb said:
How wet is it likely to get? Unless you're thinking of 40-50 year old boats, resins are much better and water ingress is much less than it used to be.
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We find that as she is usually not perfectly level when ashore and as drains get clogged with leaves etc she seems wetter ashore than afloat where the rain drains properly.

The only positive is that we can run a dehumidifier and heater.


We're mid river with no power and get a good deal for a 3m lift out from Deacons. As she needs to come out for antifouling / anodes anyway and we need power for polishing then may as well do it during the winter.

Our club do a Rally the last weekend in November so we wil come out mid December and go back in mid March.
 
jac said:
We find that as she is usually not perfectly level when ashore and as drains get clogged with leaves etc she seems wetter ashore than afloat where the rain drains properly.

The only positive is that we can run a dehumidifier and heater.


We're mid river with no power and get a good deal for a 3m lift out from Deacons. As she needs to come out for antifouling / anodes anyway and we need power for polishing then may as well do it during the winter.

Our club do a Rally the last weekend in November so we wil come out mid December and go back in mid March.
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I never bother with a dehumidifier or heater, ventilation works. And even though there's power when I'm ashore, I polish by hand - it's kinder to the gelcoat.
 
pvb said:
I never bother with a dehumidifier or heater, ventilation works.
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+1. I take my wooden spoons home for the winter because otherwise they invariable grow mouldy, but in general the boat stays bone dry with the forecabin vent open a tad and the vents in the washboards.
 
pvb said:
I never bother with a dehumidifier or heater, ventilation works. And even though there's power when I'm ashore, I polish by hand - it's kinder to the gelcoat.
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But do you actually use the boat? My experience of boats in the winter without a dehumidifier is that within a few hours of arriving, water is running down the windows - particularly if you have boiled a kettle or had a shower.
 
maby said:
But do you actually use the boat? My experience of boats in the winter without a dehumidifier is that within a few hours of arriving, water is running down the windows - particularly if you have boiled a kettle or had a shower.
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Yes, use it over the winter, typically spend one night a week onboard. Use the Webasto for heating, and it's installed so it brings fresh air in. No condensation to speak of, although the Bavaria construction method effectively insulates the interior.
 
JumbleDuck said:
I'm not going to advertise it until it's out, but then yes, it will be listed asap. I'm hoping to do what I have seen others so and have it on a wooden frame with battery, fuel tank and water tank so that anyone who wants to see it running can. That might be over-optimistic, so I'll certainly have some videos of it running and starting in situ.
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When I sold mine, I literally had a queue of three the same day I advertised. Member of the club was first and he helped me take it out so that he knew what was involved.

Really is much easier to sell it when in the boat. Boat jumbles will only get a small potential audience and just think of the work humping it about in the hope somebody on the day will buy it.

You have 3 weeks to find a buyer.
 
Tranona said:
Really is much easier to sell it when in the boat. Boat jumbles will only get a small potential audience and just think of the work humping it about in the hope somebody on the day will buy it.
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I can't see why it would be easier to sell on the boat, particularly since the boat will be on an island, which makes it tricky for either transport or collection. I'm not planning to hump it around boat jumbles; just take it to the one which is on my way home with it.

So thank you for your advice and encouragement, but I'm happy with my decision; get it out, get it to the mainland, sell it.
 
In all year round - and have been for 20 years, first with a wooden boat which came out for 2 weeks each summer when conditions are good for painting.

Latest boat is coppercoated so lifted just to clean bottom and check anodes. Out for less than 2 hours. Hope this will be the annual cycle, although may try 2 lifts a year.

Used the boat about half a dozen times from November to April. No signs of damp or condensation. In fact even after a year still smells like a new boat!
 
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