When to Start Worrying About Ice

[mow2000]

My fiberglass 27' sailboat is currently in the water in the mouth of a small creek which empties in to the Chesapeake Bay (directly West of Tangier island on the Virginia coast). I've been meaning to have it pulled out but can't coordinate my schedule with the boatyard's schedule. Is ice a concern here? I can't imagine it will get more than a fraction of an inch thick if that but I don't know for sure.

[anjou]

Does it realy get that cold where you are?

[mow2000]

Originally Posted by anjou

Does it realy get that cold where you are?

Night temps will be in the twenties this week. Days in the thirties (above freezing). Last week was colder i believe. The small bay I live on during the week, off the Potomac river, is iced over several hundred feet out from the shore. Probably not that thick.

[idpnd]

Our family boat was regularly left out in brackish frozen water for the winter, nothing much happens.. Think you need a lot of ice to do a shackleton

[Hud3]

I used to live on Tabbs Creek, about 15 nm south of you. We kept our boat at our dock there. The creek iced over some times in the dead of winter, 3-4" thick where we were, but there was always a small ring of open water left all around the boat. If you don't get a winter like 1976-77, when the entire Bay froze all the way across, you shouldn't have to worry about it.

[BubbleHeadMd]

Originally Posted by anjou

Does it realy get that cold where you are?

Unfortunately, it does. I'm an hour away from him and I'm iced in pretty well. The winds from the North have also blown much of the water out of the Bay, making it shallower, and even more prone to freezing.

Mow, can you get a bubbler? It's kind of like a turbine that you place in the water to keep it moving. It prevents ice from forming. Also known as an ice-eater.

[anotherT34C]

Our canal (up in NY) typically freezes for a few weeks in Jan/Feb. Never really much more than a few inches thick (though thick enough to walk on), and has never been a problem (22 years and counting).

We don't even bother with a bubbler. No-one around here seems to.

[Hudson Force]

We adjust by latitude to the degree that means we only worry about ice when we have guests for the rum daiquiris. 'take care and joy, Aythya crew

[marshmat]

Surface ice is really only a concern if it moves. Even a weak hull can often handle freezing into a stationary ice sheet, but if the ice starts to shift..... well, think of a knife edge with ten thousand pounds of force behind it. In a marina or a quiet canal, the ice probably won't shift; out on a mooring or at an exposed pier it might be a major concern.

The freezing of fresh water in the vessel's plumbing would be at least as big a concern as the surface ice, in my opinion.

[ad_astra]

For a boat in the same water conditions as in the original post (although much closer to the entrance of the bay where the water is quite salty and a bit warmer): Say that the cockpit drains empty into a through hull below the waterline. Is it better to leave the through hull open, so that is doesn't fill with fresh water and freeze, or open to salt water which so far has remained above freezing but may possibly freeze later this season. I'm not sure if the hose that comes off the seacock is above or below the waterline....

Of course this point may be academic. The air temperature has gone down to 20 and I haven't gotten a call from the marina about a sunken boat yet so......

[thinwater]

Originally Posted by mow2000

My fiberglass 27' sailboat is currently in the water in the mouth of a small creek which empties in to the Chesapeake Bay (directly West of Tangier island on the Virginia coast). I've been meaning to have it pulled out but can't coordinate my schedule with the boatyard's schedule. Is ice a concern here? I can't imagine it will get more than a fraction of an inch thick if that but I don't know for sure.

... if I had taken some steps. I posted my thoughts, at length, on my blog. Perhaps there is some useful expereince there.(Sail Delmarva: Search results for winter)

2 winters out of 3 I sail without interruption. About 1 out of 4 I use an Ice Eater for at least a few weeks; not very necessary, but I have it. This year looks to be tougher than average. Though I went out a week ago, I think I am done for a while and I am putting the ice Eater in tomorrow. I agree with the other posters, though, that the Ice Eater is most likely redundant.

Perhaps the most important thing is to be certain that your sump pump can't freeze; no check valves, no loops. A neighbors boat sank during the snow from that.