Winter on board, what's going to happen? Part 2
Continuing on from Part 1, Where we touch on protecting your boat during the winter. In Part 2 we'll cover what winter means to you and your safety aboard. I should really have named this article; "How to not swim in ice water". Sad fact, at some point or another most boaters take that misstep into the drink. Trick is: try not to hit anything on the way down and do it when it's nice outside. The winter will bring snow, ice and frost to your boat before it happens on the land and water. An absentminded walk from the boat to your car can turn to peril in seconds after a light fall frost. Ask me how I know...
The following will again be laced with Amazon click through links of the products we purchased and use to increase our winter safety. Not all of them will be the right fit for your situation but if you decide that you're going to purchase one of them, clicking the button on our site to purchase it will help fund our Lifesaport and the Improbable Fund. Thanks for indulging us!
Surfaces
First we should cover all of the different surfaces that you have to step on to get from the boat to the car. Each with different freezing potential and safety solutions. I'm going to use imperfect statements in the following (more than usual anyway). I'll substitute "can" with "will" or "all the time" for "sometimes". I want to drive home that when it's cold out don't trust what you're looking at on any walking surface around the marina. Assume that it's iced or wet and approach it focused. Because when you think it's no big deal...it'll be the one time that it is.
- The main dock. Most docks are 4 to 8 feet wide. Built with decking that can be made of wood, synthetic wood, or concrete. All with differing levels of grip and freeze points. Some docks are built on pilings, others can be floating on pontoons. Docks that are raised on pilings can freeze faster than the ground or water. A similar warning to the road signs that read before crossing bridges. Floating docks will take on the temperature of the water they're floating in and will take on the same attributes as the water. Given the width of most main docks, it's possible to slip and fall without going into the water. I've seen where some will tie rope from piling to piling during the cold months as a slip precaution. This isn't a great idea in my opinion as the tendency is to use the rope as a handrail. Doing this brings you closer to the edge of the dock. So, if your feet do come out from under you, it's a 50/50 chance that they're going to go over the water. If your feet go that way, your body is likely to follow from the momentum. Even if you have a hold of the rope, most of us don't have the upper body strength to pull ourselves back up onto the dock. Staying to the center of the main dock will increase your odds of falling on a firm surface should you slip. It won't feel good but it's better than the ice bath alternative. Your marina is responsible for clearing any snow from the main dock. With ice they usually won't do anything except throw sand out. As salt will damage the decking and pollutes the water.
- Gangway. Floating docks will have large metal ramps that are hinged to the dock and the bulkhead (land). The incline angle of the ramp will increase and decease with the tide. The gangway will usually have traction plates added and railings on both sides. In the event that it's ice covered a hand rope tided at the top and a pair of Yaktraks (see below) will get you up and down relatively safely. Moving supplies might be a bit more of a hassle though.
- Finger Pier. Here's where things can get tricky. Since you'll be straddling two different surfaces. Pier to Boat or vice-versa. While both will be trying to move out from under you. (Make no mistake that finger pier is moving under you.) Adding ice to these surfaces doubles the fun. There's a beautiful way around this using the following:
The HeatTrak can be chained up to 5 units and thermostatically controlled. They make smaller stair sizes that fit most gunwales and walkways on your boat. Running these down your finger pier saves you from all the hassle and safety concerns. They're not damaged by Yaktraks. If you're a good at convincing people. You may be able to talk the marina into getting them for the docks.
Heat Trak makes a thermostat but it's also way overpriced for what it is. Below is what farmers use to turn on livestock drinking water de-icers and it works just fine"
- The boat's deck. Hopefully, the heat from inside your cabin will keep ice from forming on some of the deck. However, areas like the bow, gunwales or the swim platform that do not have heated areas underneath of them can easily ice over. More to the point, they can form a thin sheet of ice that will be impossible to distinguish from nighttime dew. Again- I'd recommend placing heated mats on the most traveled parts of your deck. It should go without saying but in case you don't know: Do not use traction sand, salt or some other type of snow melt on your boat. It will damage it. Either by scratching, gouging, or chemical attack. Don't take the chance.
Yaktraxs are excellent for traversing an ice covered dock. The problem we ran into with using these is they will your fiberglass deck. For us that meant putting them on once we got on to the finger pier. Not optimal, given that a well fitted set is hard to slide over your shoes when standing one legged while the finger dances under you. Luckily, we've been able to manage without them. We still have them queued up for winter time use though.
Fresh Water
In areas that see freezing temps, you can expect that at some point the marina is going to shut off the dock water. Not fun. You will have to get water to your boat from a freeze proof spigot located on the land. This probably means you'll be purchasing more feet in hose than most own in a lifetime. In some marinas, they will let the slip owners run a hose under the water from the land to their boat. This will prevent it from freezing and allows you to keep the hose run in place. Not all marinas will allow this. If your marina does, make sure those hose joints are solidly tightened to prevent contamination. In our marina, we have to uncoil and coil every time we fill up. This weekly chore takes 400' of hose to make it to the spigot. This can be a monster with regular garden hose. In the cold, regular hose does not want to uncoil. It will coil back up once the water flowing through it warms it but, you have to be quick and get the coiling done before it hardens again. Flexzilla is not effected by the temperature nearly as much. Using this hose saves us so much frustration when storing it. It's drinking water safe and doesn't snag on the dock when you drag it. It's more expensive that other hoses but it's totally worth it during the winter. Hint: once you fill your tanks, drain all the water from the hose before coiling it up. This way you won't have to clear ice in the hose the next time you go to use it. Also, using two pilings to coil the hose around is the easiest place to store it. Connecting the ends together in a loop will keep it from going into the water.
Using the expanding hoses is also an option but I haven't had good luck with them. The inner diameter is much smaller than regular hose and it takes twice as long to fill your tanks. My experience is that the manufactures of those hoses don't give true lengths either. So, you may end up buying more expandable hose length than Flexzilla to make the same run. Costing you more. Although, the expanding hose will purge itself of water much easier than the Flexzilla.
Extreme Safety
Colleen and I discussed this after I slipped on a frost covered swim platform and went in. Life jackets. Maybe a little overly cautious but in the aftermath we where thinking of how bad it could've been. A slip and fall from a frozen dock is not graceful. Chances are you're going to hit something on the way down. I had broke my hand when I went off the side just trying to catch myself. It could've been my head.
If you lose consciousness when falling into water it's pretty much curtains. The only hope you'd have is if you had a self righting life jacket on. We could see that wearing our auto inflatables over our winter gear wasn't going to happen on the regular. Staying vigilantly safe doesn't happen when you're late for work. The solution was this:
A Float Coat. There are varying styles that are fashionably acceptable as a winter coat. You know that you'll put it on before you leave because it's cold and you're going to need a jacket. And bonus; it'll protect you if you do fall. Win.
In addition, we made it a practice to text each other when we get to the car each morning. This way, if one of us leaves before the other we'll know if the other is in trouble by the silence.
I hope that these two articles answered questions about winter time in the marina and gave you some tips on being safe. It's still a learning process and we plan to share more as our experience grows. As always, if any of the info here helped you, please consider visiting the our Improbable Fund page to help support Lifesaport or use the Amazon buy buttons.
Cheers
Mike
Life's a Port.
