Year round boating – where is the line?

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Well-Known Member
TECHNICAL Contributor
Oct 3, 2006
4,404
Wisconsin - Winnebago Pool chain of lakes
Boat Info
280 Sundancer, Westerbeke MPV generator
Engines
twin 5.0's w/BIII drives
I was reading another thread about a person winterizing their boat in the Atlanta GA area. I thought boating was a 12 month activity this far south.

How far south do you need to be before boating becomes a year round activity?
 
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Well Pres, if I get my next boat here soon, I plan on using it over the winter. We have winterized the 230 in past years because we never really had the room to enjoy it in teh winter. Luckily our lakes don't freeze and obviously for us the Puget Sound(saltwater) won't freeze and offers great cruising on those weekends with no wind. It does get cold so I'll still have to take precautions and I just want to make sure I have heat aboard so during it's trailered storage I don't have any freezing issues. So yeah we're not south but we are pretty mild....and wet.
 
The line is the hard freeze line, in my opinion. Even then, we lived in San Antonio, Tx for four years without winterizing. During really cold nights, we placed 100 watt bulbs in the engine room. It was a simple 19 foot ski boat with an I/O. The more complicated the boat, the more complicated the solutions. Depending on the temp of the water, leaving it in the water during a cold spell may help keep the entire temp up, but thin, fresh-water lines (sinks....) are easy targets for cold weather.
 
We boat all year in the Knoxville area, the water temperature here hasn't dropped below 40 in many years. Some people winterize at our marina but most don't (except water system)
 
Besides portions of the West Coast the only other place where it wont freeze (air temperature wise) is Florida, although northern areas of FLA may occasionally freeze too.

So if your boat is not kept in the water in any of the other southern or the coastal states you risk freeze damage if you don't winterize. Where lake, river, or ocean water itself doesn't freeze, if you keep the boat in the water and take some precautions such as bilge heaters and cabin heaters and winterizing fresh water systems, it is possible to boat year round. I would say the Coastal Atlantic from Virginia/Maryland south and most of the coastal areas in the West as well as most of the southern states, water itself doesn't freeze over so it is possible to boat year round with a few precautions and some camper canvas. We normally do although this year there isn't enough water in the lake because of the drought so mine is winterized and sits on the hard. :smt009
 
For the last two years I haven't winterized the boat. I have put fuel stabilizer in but last year I did manage to wakeboard at least once every month of the year. It is very strange to be out in the middle of the lake and be the only one out there. If I kept the boat outside I would winterize it but it stays in a heated garage so I really don't have to worry about anything freezing. Last year we had some days in the mid 60's in January so why not go enjoy the lake.
 
Some hard core boaters from my marina take their boats to Myrtle Beach and slip them there for the winter. They then drive down (about 7 hours) several times from December to March and use them. They are trying to talk me into doing this next winter so we can have several boats together. This is probably the closest place where winterizing is not necessary
 
Doug-
Boat was pulled this afternoon. Having same thoughts. We plan a trip to South Carolina in early Feb. so I can enjoy an adult beverage be by some un frozen water. In reality we were talking last weekend and most of our friends put the most hours this year then recent past years. This was a great summer "Up North". Even the October weather was boating weather. Hope you had same on that warm water! The pond is cold already.
Mike
 
I think this really depends on several factors and can't really be a "line" per se.

First, it depends on what you call "boating." Around here, the water towns and cities have dockage and restaurants open year round so it's possible to take the boat to Virginia Beach, for example, and dock at a restaurant and grab lunch or something. The rest of the day is usually spent fishing or on the heated bridge and not on the back of the boat drinking daiquiris.

Which brings up the second point in that it depends what kind of boat you have. Having a heated and enclosed helm area is really the only way I find it enjoyable to be on the water here in the winter months. We've shoveled snow off the back of the boat to head out fishing in the morning and the bridge is 72 degrees and we have a nice hot cup of coffee and short sleeves. The temps here in the winter months can swing from 10 degrees at night to upper 60's during the day. It's beautiful on the bay or ocean here when it is clear, sunny, and in the 60's. The typical Sundancer model, however, is going to be hard pressed to be on 40 degree water with no heat at the helm.

Which brings up a third point. The water temps have to be above about 38 degrees for the heat to work. If the water temps get below that, it's no fun. Fortunately here on the southern bay, they generally stay above that on the bay itself. The tributaries, however, can freeze over which is another reason to move the boat close to the bay or ocean in the winter.

The weather is the forth point. Winter brings far more volatile weather in terms of wind and waves. Don't have to worry about thunderstorms, but Gales whipping up with northeast winds in excess of 30 knots that blow for days are very common.

So... it depends on what you like to do, what kind of boat you have, and what the water temps are... and there's your line.

Oh.. and a life raft is a must regardless of if you are on the river, bay, or ocean... You land in the water in the winter here and your dead in less than 15 minutes. Keeps it interesting.

You also have to be able to service the boat with wash downs, water and fuel tank fillups, and pumpouts. The marina I keep my boat at in the winter shuts off the dock water around the end of November but there is still a water outlet (heated pipes) at the end of the dock to use. Everything else at the marina is operational year round.

I worked in Atlanta for 4 years and commuted to/from the Virgina Bay area every week. I can tell you that Atlanta was colder many times than it was here. I guess that's due to the big heat sink (ocean) sitting here.
 
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Four Suns said:
The typical Sundancer model, however, is going to be hard pressed to be on 40 degree water with no heat at the helm.
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Quite to the contrary Gary, we have been out on many days where both air and water temperature is in the 40's and with full camper canvas and sunshine the cockpit temperature is in the 70's from solar heating. So even if you don't have a genny, and can't run your heat pump, you can still be warm and in shirtsleeves................even on a Sundancer. Until I took our boat out of the water 3 weeks ago, we had been out at least once a week for the last thirteen months. It's especially nice out there in the winter when you have the lake all to yourself.
 
Dave S said:
Quite to the contrary Gary, we have been out on many days where both air and water temperature is in the 40's and with full camper canvas and sunshine the cockpit temperature is in the 70's from solar heating. So even if you don't have a genny, and can't run your heat pump, you can still be warm and in shirtsleeves................even on a Sundancer. Until I took our boat out of the water 3 weeks ago, we had been out at least once a week for the last thirteen months. It's especially nice out there in the winter when you have the lake all to yourself.
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Well... I had a Sundancer before my 480 and I did take it out and it would heat up somewhat. However, I would never run the boat with the canvas up on the back and closed off due to CO issues. If I recall, the back canvas had a big warning sticker on it to never run the boat with that on due to CO issues. In order to get enough ventilation, it is hard to keep the temps up with solar heating alone.
 
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I don't want to come off sounding all snooty or anything but my comments with regards to the "type of boat" you have really applies to the type of boating you like to do. Heck, I go out on a 20 foot fishing boat with an outboard in Jan but I would never get my wife to do that. Long john underwear, turtleneck, parka, and neoprene gloves is really not "boating" to many people.... Out 3 miles on the Atlantic in Jan here it is wall-to-wall 20-25 foot boats fishing for stripers.... but it's COLD!
 
Four Suns said:
Well... I had a Sundancer before my 480 and I did take it out and it would heat up somewhat. However, I would never run the boat with the canvas up on the back and closed off due to CO issues. If I recall, the back canvas had a big warning sticker on it to never run the boat with that on due to CO issues. In order to get enough ventilation, it is hard to keep the temps up with solar heating alone.
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We have had the camper enclosure on a 1998 240 Sundancer and our current 2003 280 Sundancer.

There was no warning sticker on the rear piece for the 1998. We did boat with this on in cold or rainy weather.

Our 2003 boat does have this warning tag. We have 2 CO2 detectors, one from the factory and one I added. We had them go off when I had the rear panel off and was heading away from the wind.

After that I did some thinking. I decided the tag is BS. Better to open a side port in the cabin and keep the rear panel in place. Since doing this we have not had the detectors go off when running with the rear panel installed.
 
I run with a CO monitor in the cockpit. It has a digital readout so I can always see what the levels are and react before they become critical and set off the alarm.. Our 260DA is just fine with the canvas sealed up tightly and underway CO levels drop to zero. When cruising slowly and with a tail wind, they can climb a bit but I have never seen them get into a critical zone. But if you open canvas for ventilation, then it's a whole different ball game. But one of the nice things about having a meter on your CO alarm is we quickly learned what will work or not work if we want some ventilation. That CO alarm with a meter on it is an absolute must for winter boating in my opinion.
 
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In the 230OV we had full canvas and ran in pretty cold days with hte heater running. Fed like a car's heater core it also has a fan and three vents filling the canvas and forward berth full of heat.I left a side curtain open allowing fresh air in and if it wasn't raining the top portion of the aft back canvas unzipped. It was very comfortable and made those chilly but calm and sunny days really great.

http://www.heatercraft.com/
 
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Dave S wrote I run with a CO monitor in the cockpit.

Where did you buy it?

Last weekend we got a shot of exhaust in our cabin from buddy's houseboat generator ~ 10pm...set our factory CO monitor into fits....he reluctantly shut it off....took 30 mins to air it out. When buddy said he would fire it up ~ 5am to fix coffee it concerned us to the point of cutting loose ~ midnight to find a safer place to spend the night.

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What about the converse of this question? 105 degrees, 90 degree water and high humidity. Even with an airconditioned helm, that would not be my choice of boating weather. I'll take cold weather any day over high dew points and high temps, or dry heat that is 115 degrees. It's just not fun.
 
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