Winter Storage

[shoestring1]

Hi All, This is the 2nd season season that I have owned a Classic Dragon and I'm weighing up my options for Winter storage.
2 Choices:-
1 - Have her craned out and stored uncover in a barn.
2 - Lay her up in a safe & sheltered tidal creek.
Bearing in mind she is over 50 years old what would be the kindest thing to do for her? Would it be better for her to remain in the water over the winter?

If so would anyone have another option to putting her on legs, ie, a floating cradle?

Any advise much appreciated.
Thanks
Ben K

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[halcyon]

Winter storage!!!, still trying to get mine in the water.

Brian

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[burgundyben]

I think I'd be inclined to leave her in, make sure you have a good cockpit cover and air moving around in the hull, I left my huntsman in all winter and it had no detrimental effect.

Its a boat damn it and should be left where boats were meant to be left....in the water.

<hr width=100% size=1>I didn't knacker TCM's copper it was Trazie

 

[DogStar]

I was recently told the same thing, equally emphatically. The best way to get your boat through the winter is to use it regularly.

<hr width=100% size=1>I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy!

 

[Mirelle]

There really is no doubt - the very best place

is in a barn.

With due respect to other posters, I've owned a classic Dragon myself, amongst other wooden sailing boats going back over 35 years now, and whilst I have an awful lot still to learn, I have come to appreciate that one or two things that our parents and grandparents knew about wooden boats are still right.

The best possible place, for any wooden boat, in the winter, is inside a cool, dry, airy, shed. Such as, indeed, a barn. No rain water dripping and starting rot and corrosion, and protected from the drying effects of sun and the east wind. If you look at some of the great wooden boat yards of the past century, from the Berthon to Tucker Brown, you will see sheds, boats, wooden, for the storage of, in.

The only reason why all wooden boats do not live in nice cool, dry, airy sheds in the winter is because their owners cannot afford it, due to the shortage of suitable sheds.

This applies to particular force to a boat like a Dragon, lightly built, and with decks that are not wonderfully watertight (eg in way of the shrouds and forestay...)

She will need to be properly shored up, with attention to chocking the long ends, but will benefit from the experience.

I certainly don't advise the use of "legs" for a Dragon shape hull. Dragons are not happy drying out at the best of times, and the ends would be unsupported.

A mud berth is the cheapest option, and is OK provided you have a good full size winter cover, but it is certainly not the best.

Wooden boats come to harm if they are allowed to dry out excessively, but this will not happen in an unheated barn in a North European winter. There is no particular benefit to the wood, and a good deal of damage to the metal, in keeping the boat wet all year.

Besides, where better to work on the boat than in a barn?

<hr width=100% size=1>Que scais-je?

 

[burgundyben]

Re: There really is no doubt - the very best place

Rightly as you say many of the best boatyards had sheds for winter storage, sadly DIY storage on the Hamble now is virtually gone.

It does strike me that everytime my boat gets lifted out that she cops some kind of damage and that it places un-needed strain on the structure of the boat. As you say supporting the boat properly is vital, esp the long overhangs of a dragon, how many boat have we all seen horribly distorted through poor handling, Hamble point broke a keel on a wooden motor boat only last winter.

My feeling is that the pros and cons of leaving afloat or in a dry open barn are roughly equal, just as long as the boat is looked after.

Plus of course if your boat is in a barn that Boxing Day sail wont happen!



<hr width=100% size=1>I didn't knacker TCM's copper it was Trazie

 

[LittleShip]

Wooden boats are much better left afloat where the weight can be supported as it is meant to be, however, that said, damage to the topside is greatly reduced whilst undercover. In the States many owners of wooden boats keep them in sheds which provides cover from the elements (rain, snow and sunshine) whilst leaving the boat afloat, a facility that as far as I know is not available in the UK (please tell me if it is, I want one)
For me storage ashore under cover is the best option although careful lifting and standing support are paramount??


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I wish I'd been born rich instead of good looking ?

 

[Mirelle]

Supporting weight

If your boat is likely to suffer damage through being ashore, properly chocked, she is not fit to be afloat!

But improper shoring can wreck any sort of boat - I have a friend whose GRP boat has just been "written off" for just that reason. Fin keel sinks into ground, props sink into boat...

<hr width=100% size=1>Que scais-je?