how are you keeping your boat safe during the cold?!

tphinney

tphinney

New Member
May 25, 2007
558
Tampa Bay
Boat Info
240 Sundancer 2004
Engines
5.0 MPI w/ Bravo III
The tempurature according to weather bug right now is 30 in Tampa. I had to take the boat off the lift and put it in the water so I could run the heater. I got the lights on and the heat set to 68 in hopes of keeping this hard freeze from cracking the block or any of the water lines in the boat.

Climate change sucks...............

hope other folks are take care of thiers....this type of cold isnt supposed to come this far south...
 
30 degrees in Tampa? Say it isn't so!

You are good to go. As Scott mentioned, dropping your boat in the water is the best thing you could have done.

Regarding the water lines, and as long as the temperature doesn't considerably drop you are still GTG. The upside is if there is pressure in the water lines it theoretically lowers the temperature at which the water will freeze. The other upside is even if there isn't any pressure in the lines, the plastic water lines have a little expansion capability.
 
You will be fine. Our climate is mild here in the winter too but certainly a lot colder than yours. Many people who slip their boats year round get away with no bilge heaters and their engines are fine and our water tmeps are currently in the 40s. On your fresh water sytem, just relieve the pressure by opening all the faucets and leave them open. It's also likely that the air temp just around and above your boat probably does not drop below freezing because of the warm water.

Dave
 
temps dropped to 28 last night. the northern wind drove the water out of the canal starving the heater of water. looks like I have a repair pending after this freeze is over. Tonight where headed for 25 and now I have no heat.
 
A/C will sense an error and shut down.

I too turn the fresh water pump off, open hot/cold head faucet, open cockpit sink faucet, open hot/cold transom shower. Wait for water to stop flowing. I then shut mine. I leave the heater on inside. I leave the hot water heater on.
 
In general you are safe until you get into the lower 20's for a significant amount of time.
 
Hampton said:
A/C will sense an error and shut down.

I too turn the fresh water pump off, open hot/cold head faucet, open cockpit sink faucet, open hot/cold transom shower. Wait for water to stop flowing. I then shut mine. I leave the heater on inside. I leave the hot water heater on.
Click to expand...

thats what i though; tried restarting the AC/Heat during the day and could not get water to run through the system. even toke the AC water pump apart to check it and all seems fine but still no water. When I went on board fan was blowing full tilt, but no water out the side and no heat coming out. spent the whole day in the cold working on it...:huh:. guess i'll have to check it next week when I get back from washington...working for a living sucks....
 
Assumming you have electric available, a ceramic heater will keep the cabin warm too if your on board sytem has failed.
 
sfergson727 said:
Sounds like you lost the prime in the pump. It'll fix itself on your next boat ride if you do nothing else. There are other methods for priming it, if you do a search, you'll find them.
Click to expand...

I didn't loose the prime on the pump water was flowing up past the pump. I felt the line gt cold with the water passing through it, but no water out the side.


Dave s said:
Assumming you have electric available, a ceramic heater will keep the cabin warm too if your on board sytem has failed.
Click to expand...

local stores don't keep cermatic heaters in stock. this is FL We don't get freezing temps here......
 
tphinney said:
I didn't loose the prime on the pump water was flowing up past the pump. I felt the line gt cold with the water passing through it, but no water out the side.
Click to expand...

Sounds like you have a block in the lines, hopefully at the exit. Try poking something in the exit hole (don't let your wife read this) like a coat hangar or a plastic push rod used in radio controlled model airplanes. Be sure to not use any sharp objects. Don't push hard enough to push the hose off of the fitting. I wonder if yours iced up. The question would be why it failed which then allowed it to ice up.

Check the filter on the face of the A/C unit itself. I don't know if lack of airflow will cause the unit to ice up in heat mode like it will in A/C mode. If if did, these will ice up in Summer. It would be really bad in Winter.
 
Hampton said:
Try poking something in the exit hole (don't let your wife read this)...
Click to expand...

Not sure of what you are trying to say here, but funny none-the-less.

Here is something you might try, follow the line as it comes out of your A/C strainer to where it goes into you A/C water pump. Sometimes you can loosen the four screws from the pump where the hose coming from the strainer connects and it will bleed out any air, allowing the pump to reprime. I would not take the screws all the way out, just loosen enough so you can get a crack to appear between the pump and the housing.
 
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tphinney said:
I didn't loose the prime on the pump water was flowing up past the pump. I felt the line gt cold with the water passing through it, but no water out the side.




local stores don't keep cermatic heaters in stock. this is FL We don't get freezing temps here......
Click to expand...

Even in Florida, I would think Wal Mart, Home Depot, etc would all stock them if for no other reason than to allow a homeowner the option of using a portable heater in the house in the winter rather than using your regular heating system but then again maybe I am wrong.:huh:
 
I'm going to be moving my boat to Huntsville, Al. for a while,and was going to have it trucked up the last week of January. Suddenly, I think I'm going to have to wait before having it trucked, or else I'm sure I would have to winterize the engines and water lines. I can imagine that running 50 mph in 20 degree weather for a thousand miles would certainly put the engine room below freezing. Am I missing something, or is that a reasonable assumption?
 
The transom shower is probably the most exposed and potentially a cockpit faucet. Maybe throw a blanket over those faucets to help insulate.
 
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Your not going to have any problems, even without heaters. You need temps in the 20's for several days solid (not just overnight) for things to really start freezing up on you. Case in point, it was only 16 degrees in Virginia this morning. The water in my water bottle in my car hadn't even froze yet.

As long as you do not get 2-3 days in a row that are under 30, do not seat it to bad. The most vulnerable are like Skolbe said --> the outside plumbing (shower, faucets, etc).

I see on weather.com that it is 52 there right now in Tampa, 32 tonight and 58 tomorrow. I think you, and your boat, will live. ;-)
 
It was 12-14 degrees here in eastern NC and the Trent River had a thin sheet of ice on it this morning. According to my remote thermometer, my Boatsafe bilge heater kept things at 41 degrees in the engine room. Ceramic heater kept things around the same temp in the cabin. Water is too cold for the reverse cycle unit to work. I put pink stuff in the water tank and flushed it through the lines to the cockpit sink and washdown to protect them.
 
Captain Allen said:
It was 12-14 degrees here in eastern NC and the Trent River had a thin sheet of ice on it this morning. According to my remote thermometer, my Boatsafe bilge heater kept things at 41 degrees in the engine room. Ceramic heater kept things around the same temp in the cabin. Water is too cold for the reverse cycle unit to work. I put pink stuff in the water tank and flushed it through the lines to the cockpit sink and washdown to protect them.
Click to expand...


Mine works great up here in Virginia to. Water is at or below freezing. We have about an inch of ice in the bay also. It will not work immediately and start blowing warm air out right away. Let it run for 30-40 minutes, and it will heat it up.
 
370Dancer said:
I'm going to be moving my boat to Huntsville, Al. for a while,and was going to have it trucked up the last week of January. Suddenly, I think I'm going to have to wait before having it trucked, or else I'm sure I would have to winterize the engines and water lines. I can imagine that running 50 mph in 20 degree weather for a thousand miles would certainly put the engine room below freezing. Am I missing something, or is that a reasonable assumption?
Click to expand...


YES! I would winterize it if you are going to make this trip. Your boat will turn into a popcicle in those conditions!
 
Go to homedepotlowes or ace and get a couple of these.

Clamplight.jpg


Put a 40 - 60 watt incandescent (you want the heat) bulb in them. Clamp them in the cabin preferably near water lines. Open all cabinet doors. This should suffice for now. Get an ER heater. Better safe than sorry. This may not be the last cold winter.

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/01/11/years-global-cooling-coming-say-leading-scientists/
 
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