winter on the water

[robyonfrome]

Perhaps someone can advise me if I am doing this wrong. I leave my boat in the river all year, we use it most weekends in the winter to stay at Poole quay where we can plug in and have heating on which I feel takes the damp out of the boat. In the week I have 2 double douveys which I cover both engines and water pipes, they totally cover the whole of the engine bay and as the frost can only come from above I feel reasonably confident that they will not suffer from frost damage and of course being on the south coast the climate is a little warmer, obviously I shut off all sea cocks and another thing is I have made guards for the windows which I keep half open, out of that thin metal plate with all holes in it so that the air can circulate easily, I never get any mould which I have done on other boats. Then I take the boat out every other year in around April for a few weeks when theres room in the boat yard and its not freezing cold to clean and paint the hull and change the bellows, I do also beach the boat at studland if I need to touch up the antifouling but because Im on the river which is pretty salt free Its usually just wiping of the thin layer of slime.

 

[Whitelighter]

All sounds perfectly sensible to me

 

[itsonlymoney]

Personally I would feel safer with engine heaters fitted, other than that I agree with jez all sounds good.

 

[robyonfrome]

No power on the river!!

 

[Ifraser]

I'm also on the river and as I understand it the time to be worried is if the river freezes otherwise the river itself (which is unlikely to dip much below 6 or 7 degrees) keeps the boat warm enough not to freeze the engines etc. I do suffer a bit of mould and am about to fit some decent ventilation to attempt to cure it. I'm currently abroad at the moment and my boat is ashore just so I don't worry about her but when I get back in November I shall do a bit of work and then re-launch in December (hopefully with my new eberspacher fitted!) cheers for now... Iain

 

[motayotty]

Hi Robyonfrome, Like you I am at Redclyffe and have lifted my boat for the season. I think as you say you have covered all the angles. The thing I would be concerned about is the mixture of big tidal range and strong winds. When I began the season and went down the river four boats had sunk..!!!!
These were not small boats and I am not talking about the fishing wreck towards the bottom.
I know this should not apply to your mooring but what seemed to happen was the wind held the boats to the bank as the tide dropped very low. This left them at a really severe angle and as the tide came up the engine room vents allowed the water in.
One of them was the 30ft similar to the 'jolly rotter' with the dinghy that is usually vertical in the back and a couple of larger dories. One of those was the other side of the river from you a little further down.
I know yours doesnt dry as a rule but this was the exception.
I am happier with mine in the yard if I dont see it every weekend.

 

[robyonfrome]

Hi Motayotty
Yes I was applauded to see those boats sunk down the river and your theory was exactly the conclusion I had come to, I must admit I possibly wouldn’t leave it in if I didnt have such a safe mooring and I would certainly think twice about having a mooring down that part of the river. But as I work and live in the town I can see my boat from the bridge every day which is a comfort. I just find it strange why people take their boats out religiously on the 1st October when we have so many crisp sunny days in the winter. is this just a yachties ritual??

 

[benjenbav]

What you are clearly doing wrong is enjoying the use of your boat. Ve haf vays to stop you doing zat, Tommy. Ve vill convince ze englanders that zey must remove ze boots auf der wasser and zen it vill all be ours, all ours I say. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[motayotty]

Hi Roby, no in our case it is Nigel who sets the dates and we have to be off by the end of Oct. I envy you being where you are. I have had the environment agency mooring which is the 12 months in but as we live some distance away and with no heating on the boat we are not moving in that direction just at the moment. Have a good winter and we will give you a wave as you pass next season. That is a wave of the hand and not from the bow. Cheers Simon.