Fall boating - freeze threat?

importmonkey

Opinionated Member
Jul 9, 2015
1,056
Space Coast, FL
Boat Info
2005 260DA (sold)
2007 44DA (sold)
1989/2015 Hatteras 65c
Engines
12v92TA
Boating out of Middle River. Normally, we pull out in September but with the 44DA we want to extend the boating season as long as possible. I know much of it will have to do with the marina schedule for hauling and blocking, but we'd like to get on the tail end of that list. What's the risk of freezing later in the season (say November)? Should I get an engine room heater? How long does the temps have to be below freezing before things become an issue? I assumed the temps would have to be below freezing for at least 8-10 hours before any risk. Is this accurate? If the temps fall below 32 degrees for an hour or so over night, is that okay or not okay?

Thanks!
 
my thoughts would be as long as the water around your boat does not freeze then there is very little to no chance the water inside of your ER can freeze....the water temp is transferred through the hull and running gear into the ER.....to be safe I would install a bilge heater and cover the engine compartment vents to keep warm air in the ER and cold air out.....my bilge heater kicks on at 40*F and I don't think it ever came on the past couple years and all I do to winterize is close off the ER vents....the water in our lake rarely gets below 45*F.....the temp in my ER is usually just a degree or two cooler than the water temp....plus with the camper canvas installed the air temp in the cockpit is warmer than the ambient air temp which helps keep the temp in the ER up as well...I have remote temp sensors in the ER and cockpit and cabin that I can monitor with my cell phone.....

what I don't know is how the cold temperatures will affect the starting and running of your diesel engines....

cliff
 
We boat up her in Wisconsin into early November. If the water doesn't freeze, not much to worry about. Of course, we keep the heat on in the boat 24/7.
 
What Cliff said -- I would get an engine room heater for piece of mind, but really boating in the fall before the water get's cold, I don't think your going to encounter any problems with freezing. Plus, a few hours in the 20's isn't going to do any harm - It takes servery days of subfreezing temps at night follows by cold days to freeze and break things. I would still get the heater - you will be fine.
 
for inside (during the summer) we don't keep the air conditioning on for fear, if there's a leak, that's and endless supply of water coming into the boat. i'm worried about the same thing when the heat is running. is that any less or more risky than having a space heater sitting on the counter in the galley? or, again...is it even necessary?

keep in mind that we are 1.5hrs from the boat and only get up on weekends. not something i can check on daily or even every other day. we left the AC on while we restocked the other day (away from the boat from 6pm Wednesday to 3pm Friday) and I could barely sleep those nights.

cliff, how do you cover the vents? also, i'm trying to setup an almond3 to work as a wifi extender (boat hotspot) that will allow me to connect multiple sensors (door contacts, pirs, temperature sensors, cameras, et cetera) to monitor remotely - but what are you using to monitor the temperature?
 
Simplisafe alarm system is cell phone based and can include, CO sensor, freeze sensor, water sensor + motion, door switches etc. Highly recommended not just for burglary, but a piece of mind for other things that can harm your boat.
http://simplisafe.com/
 
In a pinch, you could always throw in a shop light to warm up your bilge, assume you have diesels.....
 
for inside (during the summer) we don't keep the air conditioning on for fear, if there's a leak, that's and endless supply of water coming into the boat. i'm worried about the same thing when the heat is running. is that any less or more risky than having a space heater sitting on the counter in the galley? or, again...is it even necessary?

keep in mind that we are 1.5hrs from the boat and only get up on weekends. not something i can check on daily or even every other day. we left the AC on while we restocked the other day (away from the boat from 6pm Wednesday to 3pm Friday) and I could barely sleep those nights.

cliff, how do you cover the vents? also, i'm trying to setup an almond3 to work as a wifi extender (boat hotspot) that will allow me to connect multiple sensors (door contacts, pirs, temperature sensors, cameras, et cetera) to monitor remotely - but what are you using to monitor the temperature?

the vents on my boat may be different than yours....I have eight 4" holes (4 per side) that were originally covered with a cheap plastic guard.....when I bought my boat most of these plastic guards had broken off so I removed what was left of them....now the vent holes are open.....I use sponges inserted into the open holes....they work great because they are larger than the hole so when they are compressed and inserted in the holes they expand to make a tight seal....they are very easy to install and remove....i bought 4 large 'figure 8' car wash sponges and cut them in half....I also took a business card and on the back I wrote the words 'remove sponges' and placed the card in front of the engine ignition keys in the main electrical panel....this reminds me to remove the sponges before I start the engines...

as for the temp monitors I went pretty low tech....I have an inexpensive AccuRite temp monitor with 3 remote sensors....all 3 sensors report data back to the single screen monitor.....I use a cloud based D-Link camera to observe the monitor to see the temps in all 3 zones....I position the monitor near a small LED night light so the monitor screen is softly illuminated....I can log onto the D-Link camera when I want and see the monitor....the D-Link camera does have an infra-red night light but the glare from the infra-red lights reflects pretty bad off the monitor screen to the point I can't see the monitor very well at all....

I do have a wi-fi extender to boost the wi-fi signal from our marina to keep a solid connection for the D-Link cameras I have installed....

cliff
 
for inside (during the summer) we don't keep the air conditioning on for fear, if there's a leak, that's and endless supply of water coming into the boat. i'm worried about the same thing when the heat is running. is that any less or more risky than having a space heater sitting on the counter in the galley? or, again...is it even necessary?

keep in mind that we are 1.5hrs from the boat and only get up on weekends. not something i can check on daily or even every other day. we left the AC on while we restocked the other day (away from the boat from 6pm Wednesday to 3pm Friday) and I could barely sleep those nights.

cliff, how do you cover the vents? also, i'm trying to setup an almond3 to work as a wifi extender (boat hotspot) that will allow me to connect multiple sensors (door contacts, pirs, temperature sensors, cameras, et cetera) to monitor remotely - but what are you using to monitor the temperature?

Kept our boat year round in Newport, RI and used it on weekends........your reverse cycle heat wont work at water temps below 40 degrees......plus running it in cold water is hard on the compressor.....get an electric heater for the cabin (we had one made by caframo that had a thermostat - still have it if you're interested) we also used a bilge heater.....
 
I'm in the same area as you, have left the boat in till week before Thanksgiving with no issues.
 
Bilge heater, drain all water, 4000 BTU infrared cabin heater - 5000BTU infrared on deck when it snowed (kept the canvas toasty and snow just melted off) - never a problem. Being Colorado has a short season, we were always one of the first in, and last out. Dock officially opened April 15th, and you were pretty much guaranteed multiple freezes and snow events.

Some of the most relaxing and scenic boating was after a snow storm. Absolutely loved it...

4 29 17 boat check1.jpg
Snow Cruise10 5 19 17.JPG
Snow Cruise5 5 19 17.JPG
4 29 17 boat check2.jpg
 
So back to the original post... I am assuming you are hauled out, how did you make out? I hauled right before the first freeze. I blew out the water lines and missed my master head shower and it did freeze as I tried to blow it out on the weekend and it was blocked. It thawed once it got warmer and I did blow it out finally before it got cold up here again, we will see if it did anything in the spring!!!

The engines were OK and actually when we purchased the boat we kept it in the water from end of February after the sea trial and the engines did fine, so I suspect that cold snap we just had was not an issue.

I like Bob's (Doozie) method of blowing out the lines, that worked great for me this year. I did run a few gallons of the pink stuff through the cold side so that I did not have water sitting in the tank, filter and pump that could freeze. But I suspect that running the tank dry clears out the filter and pump, so maybe next year I don't need the pink stuff.
 

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