The Ice Is Coming . . .

[SabreKai]

Its been my experience (lived aboard in Lake Ontario one winter) that water in the bilge will not freeze as long as the impellor is working. No ice outside is no ice inside. I had so much condensation in my boat that I had to bail it out about once a week. The watercoming up from the harbour bottom was about 34 degrees, so the hull at that point was also 34. I did have ice forming on the inside skin above the waterline from condensation a couple of times when my heaters fried.

Now as to living aboard. Heaters are important but to my mind Insulation is even more important due to the absolutely unbelievable amount of condensation two people will put out in a cabin. The Grampian I was living on was a single skin fiberglas boat with no insulation in the hull or cabin sides. The deck and coach roof had the obligatory half inch of balsa coring but that was all. I had no green house built either as I wanted to sail on good days. My lady used to come down, we'd cook dinner on the alcohol stove and watch the water run down the cabin sides. My biggest expense that winter was A) burned out electric heaters (7 of them fried to a crisp) and B) paper towels to mop up the neverending waterfall.

After that winters experience, I was planning on making up a "boat blanket" by taking some heavy mil plastic, laying out a piece as long as the boats hull curvature required, twice as wide as the toerail to waterline plus a bit, and then laying fiberglas insulation batts on it. Fold the plastic up and seal with an Iron or perhaps 5200. Install grommets and tie it to the lifelines so it hangs down to the waterline or a bit below and snug up the drawstrings. The green house is easy, but for sure you do need one. It give a bit of warmth and lots of on deck dry storage.


Sabre

[LakeSuperior]

The steel fish tugs up here get a 6 to 12 inch ice skirt around the hull where it is in the water. This happens during the winter and spring. Essentially, the cold air inside the hull causes the water next to the hull to freeze. They actually run all spring with this ice skirt until the water warms enough to melt it off.

I have personally observed this while working under the ice replacing a wheel.