A Wild Canadian Winter.

So this weekend was pretty wild. -30 with a -40 windchill plus 70km/hr gusts. I have experienced both these at separate times, -30 no wind and 70km/hr gusts but with much warmer air, the two together are a deadly mix.

Both my shrink wrap doors blew off, and I came home to the boat sitting at -1 Celsius. My bubblers apparently don't work after a certain temperature, -50. I'm iced in like a brick.

It's hard to tell, but I don't think I took any major damage. Hopefully just lost some paint due to the ice.

I walked up to the clubhouse late tonight to shower and a pipe burst, there was no water or hydro. I keep my water off during the winter, so not sure if it effects the docks, my hydro is still on though thank God.

There is a bit of damage around the marina, mostly people's tarps and shrink wrap blew off and some guys bumper exploded (I didn't even know that was possible).


Never have I thought I would be walking down a dock knee high in blowing snow.

Best of luck with the latest storm to hit the Lake Ontario area. And may the hydro continue to work.

"Hydro" is such an interesting regional term for electric power. I first encountered it on the Rideau and it took me a while to figure out people were talking about dock power, not dock water. Seems to be mostly in Ontario?

twistedtree said:

"Hydro" is such an interesting regional term for electric power....Seems to be mostly in Ontario?

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It's Canada wide, as evidenced by BC Hydro who sends us hydro bills, not electrical bills.

Good luck with your epic winter. We just went through a record breaker snow storm and while we skated through pretty much unscathed, others weren't so lucky. Being able to keep a close watch on your boat will help a lot...our road to the marina was blocked for days.

twistedtree said:

"Hydro" is such an interesting regional term for electric power. I first encountered it on the Rideau and it took me a while to figure out people were talking about dock power, not dock water. Seems to be mostly in Ontario?

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LOL I went thru that as well.
Though not as cold here in Ct, we are also having an extremely brutal winter. Hopefully the pattern will change soon.

Yes, reading the news in recent decades, one could assume the season known as winter has died out and been replaced by the horrific effects of eternal warming. Or better said the chase for plumb news assignments and receipt of grants and government money is predicated upon winter not occurring or being reported.

In the US the news gleefully reports the storms in the east are more than offset by global warming ramping up in the western part of the nation. The notion of jet streams and upper air patterns has vanished.

Even Aussies are not immune to US "winter has gone" mantra as two luckless souls from down under were just picked up by the USCG 140 miles SE of Nantucket as their sail boat foundered in WINTER weather.

MurrayM said:

It's Canada wide, as evidenced by BC Hydro who sends us hydro bills, not electrical bills.

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Interesting. I guess circumstances never caused it to come up during my visits to other parts of Canada. But now that I'll be going through BC by boat, I'll probably run into it.

kyle911 said:

....and I came home to the boat sitting at -1 Celsius. My bubblers apparently don't work after a certain temperature, -50. I'm iced in like a brick.

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Would a full displacement hull (round) fair better in those conditions?

kyle911 said:

So this weekend was pretty wild. -30 with a -40 windchill plus 70km/hr gusts. I have experienced both these at separate times, -30 no wind and 70km/hr gusts but with much warmer air, the two together are a deadly mix.

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Crazy weather for sure!! I visited the web site for that reality TV Show "Alaska, The Last Frontier" It's about a couple of farm families near Homer, AK, roughly 100 miles SW of Anchorage as the crow flies. They have three live cameras setup on line. Looks like they only have 3 or 4 inches of snow if that and most of the winter they've had nothing.

We haven't had anything but rain and warm sunny weather here North of Seattle and lots of that!!

Sorry for you mid west and East coasters, that weather really sucks!!

Ottos Woodshed | Alaska: The Last Frontier | Discovery

Delivering the mail from Deer Isle to Isle au Haut a couple of days ago.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=766372776779827

twistedtree said:

Interesting. I guess circumstances never caused it to come up during my visits to other parts of Canada. But now that I'll be going through BC by boat, I'll probably run into it.

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Our electric here is Puget Sound Energy, but they refer to our electrical power as "Hydroelectric", since much of it is generated from water reservoirs/dams. I would guess it originated from that same source in Canada as well?

Kyle,
We lived in SE Alaska and one winter our boat was frozen solid in 3" of ice. Was really strange stepping aboard and the boat moved not at all like stepping on a sidewalk. No one that I recall suffered hull damage. It wasn't that cold (don't recall the temp) but the town floats were very near the outlet of a significant river so there was much fresh water on the surface.

This is the small town (435 peeps) and the river comes in behind the tree on the left.

Edelweiss,
Calling our power "hydroelectric" may be less accurate than it has been in the past. I seem to recall we may get more of our power from coal than hydro sources. And if so we should give coal it's due ..... "Black Coal Power".

The BC Hydro talk takes me back to my time living in BC.

I looked it up .... Sources of PSE power.
41% from hydro
25% NG
24% coal.
And some wind.
So it seems "Dinoelectric" would be more correct.

Saw the first rhododendrons blooming this morning, crocuses are open and the tulips are pushing up. It's been a non-winter here in the PNW, lots of rain and warm temps. The mountains are almost bare of snow, I've never seen them so bare in mid-Feb. It seems to me that when the east gets hammered by cold weather we get the opposite, and vice versa. I believe it is due to the jet stream. Suns out and it is supposed to hit 14C today (high 50's), think I'll go do boat stuff .

kyle911 said:

My bubblers apparently don't work after a certain temperature, -50. I'm iced in like a brick.

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For the sake of us down south members, could some one explain how the "bubblers" are supposed to work?

TIA.

Greetings,
Mr. D. Water that is moving is very much less apt to freeze. Water movement is generated around the hull either by a stream of air bubbles rising to the surface from a compressor via submerged tubing or a submerged waterproof motor with a propeller both mounted under or very near the hull.

Ddog said:

Saw the first rhododendrons blooming this morning, crocuses are open and the tulips are pushing up. It's been a non-winter here in the PNW, lots of rain and warm temps. The mountains are almost bare of snow, I've never seen them so bare in mid-Feb. It seems to me that when the east gets hammered by cold weather we get the opposite, and vice versa. I believe it is due to the jet stream. Suns out and it is supposed to hit 14C today (high 50's), think I'll go do boat stuff .

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Yup. I'm going to mow my yard and then go out on the boat this afternoon.

Need to check the prawning regulations...

Northern Spy, you have some great drinking water in Powell River. Always stop at Westview on the trips north. Marina updates are nice. And if you are mowing up there must be time to start planning our trip.

Wow!! How often do you think you can ski to your boat? The article indicates this pic is taken near Boston.

manyboats said:

Edelweiss,
Calling our power "hydroelectric" may be less accurate than it has been in the past. I seem to recall we may get more of our power from coal than hydro sources. And if so we should give coal it's due ..... "Black Coal Power".

I looked it up .... Sources of PSE power.
24% coal.
So it seems "Dinoelectric" would be more correct.

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That must be the numbers for the entire multi state Northwest Power Grid. Because the legislature is debating eliminating all coal power as we speak and the remaining coal fired power plant in Centralia will close in 10 years. They give the state percentage of coal generated power at "less than 14%" in Washington.

Washington State debates law to wean off coal power - Electric Light & Power

RT Firefly said:

Greetings,
Mr. D. Water that is moving is very much less apt to freeze. Water movement is generated around the hull either by a stream of air bubbles rising to the surface from a compressor via submerged tubing or a submerged waterproof motor with a propeller both mounted under or very near the hull.

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We have never actually seen one but I was aware they use them at our marina. After thinking about your reply, I guess they must be used to try to keep ice from building up around the pilings in the harbor but there was so much ice last year, the Marina Associations report said some docks were damaged with an attendant special assessment. All the boats are hauled by around early November. There is about 15-20" of ice on the lake off Lake Michigan. I will Google to see if I can find a bubbler used for a boat. Since we are only there for the summer, we never saw the bubblers at our marina in action but we are told we can't fish off our slips in the harbor because it might damage the bubblers.

Is the OP in danger of having his hull crushed by ice?

Donsan said:

We have never actually seen one but I was aware they use them at our marina. After thinking about your reply, I guess they must be used to try to keep ice from building up around the pilings in the harbor but there was so much ice last year, the Marina Associations report said some docks were damaged with an attendant special assessment. All the boats are hauled by around early November. There is about 15-20" of ice on the lake off Lake Michigan. I will Google to see if I can find a bubbler used for a boat. Since we are only there for the summer, we never saw the bubblers at our marina in action but we are told we can't fish off our slips in the harbor because it might damage the bubblers.

Is the OP in danger of having his hull crushed by ice?

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Google "Ice eater" or "ice agitator"

Having same problem as OP. My round displacement hull is just getting squeezed upwards (about 1' at the bow). I'd be really concerned with a hard chined boat like his.

Greetings,
Along the same lines as ice having the ability to crush hulls, what thickness of ice can one potentially travel through/break with a FRP hull or is this activity not recommended at all?

RT Firefly said:

Greetings,
Along the same lines as ice having the ability to crush hulls, what thickness of ice can one potentially travel through/break with a FRP hull or is this activity not recommended at all?

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Strictly a guess .... if I had a hard chined boat I'd get worried around 6". I've seen that thickness do huge damage to docks. it's not only the thickness, wind and current driving a 500 ton sheet of 3" ice would scare the hell out of me.

Sitka, Alaska is 48 F today. We may not get winter this year.

I've been living aboard west of Toronto for twenty years now. I've never seen ice anything close to this. It started about 2.5 weeks ago with an extremely heavy snowfall at -24 degrees C. I've never seen it snow when it was that cold before. The snow was freezing on the water surface and built up a 2' thick slush in an afternoon. That slush froze and we have not been able to beat it back since. Ice within 10' of my boat is 3' .

Greetings,
Mr. bp. You may have misunderstood. If one was underway and came upon a frozen section of waterway, what is the maximum thickness of ice one could break with a FRP hull?

RT Firefly said:

Greetings,
Mr. bp. You may have misunderstood. If one was underway and came upon a frozen section of waterway, what is the maximum thickness of ice one could break with a FRP hull?

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No clue.

I did bring a 40' Mainship through 1' clear ice in Port Credit Harbour Marina a few years ago, did it very slowly as I was quite worried, that stuff can be sharp and the Mainships have thin hulls.

I'll be chipping ice tomorrow.

Basically bubblers bring up warmer water from the bottom and push it towards the boat.

I talked to one of my friends that lives in a marina in the heart of the city. They have it much easier down there, protection from the islands and surrounding buildings they don't get as much wind as we do. Although he is completely iced in as well.

Any ice is bad ice with fiberglass. It's a bit weird only about 1/2 the people down here bubble, the others just don't bother. Not sure the reasoning, Pretty sure there isn't that many steel hulls around here.