Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
 
Old 09-29-2017, 12:24 PM   #1
Senior Member
 
Dave_E's Avatar
 
City: La Conner, WA
Vessel Name: Agnus Dei
Vessel Model: 36' Shin Shing
Join Date: Sep 2014
Posts: 276
Winterizing in Puget Sound

Hi All,

My sailboats water tank was an integral fiberglass tank in the bow of the boat, which was near and below the water line. Never worried about it freezing with our year round 53 degree water here in Puget Sound. Now that I have the trawler with (2) 75 gallon stainless steel tanks in the lazerette well above the water line, should I be doing any winterizing? The boat is of course in the water year round and we intend to use it year round.

What do you folks who sail Puget Sound do? Thanks.

Dave
__________________
GOD, Family, career
Dave_E is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-29-2017, 12:47 PM   #2
Guru
 
Nomad Willy's Avatar
 
City: Concrete Washington State
Vessel Name: Willy
Vessel Model: Willard Nomad 30'
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 18,743
Hi Dave,
Yes but very little.
Put one or two mid sized goldenrods in the laz and engine compartment.
Watch the weather a bit so you know in advance of temps below the low 20's. Then turn on a 750watt electric heater. If the temps go below 20 turn up the heaters to 1500w. Most have a 750w and 1500w position on the switch.
This is if your boat has little or no insulation like mine. Make sure Kody (HM) has your e-mail and check often for power outages. Other than that check your boat often. If you live quite far away have someone (like me (I'm at LaConner (B8))) check on your boat.
Also those very low watt heaters that are designed to lower humidity are excellent. Very safe and consume very little power.
PM me if you wish.
__________________
Eric

North Western Washington State USA
Nomad Willy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-29-2017, 02:38 PM   #3
TF Site Team
 
koliver's Avatar
 
City: Saltspring Island
Vessel Name: Retreat
Vessel Model: C&L 44
Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 5,663
I too have a pair of 75 gal water tanks high above the waterline in the laz. Also another pair under the bed in the aft cabin. I leave them full.
I have had this boat 23 winters. My winterizing has never been seriously tested by Vancouver weather.
I have a pair of 1500 watt heaters. one in the aft cabin, one in the fwd cabin. I set them on the lowest possible setting, so they should only come on when it gets really cold. In the coldest weather, the YC needs to cut power and everybody has more heaters on than the system can tolerate, so I allow them to turn them off They usually have the power reduction for only a day or two at a time.
I also leave the charger and the HW tank on, so the ER is usually warm. In conservation mode, I allow them to turn off the HW tank.
That is all I do.
I have never had a problem.
__________________
Keith
koliver is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-29-2017, 03:00 PM   #4
Guru
 
Edelweiss's Avatar
 
City: PNW
Vessel Model: 1976 Californian Tricabin LRC
Join Date: May 2011
Posts: 1,860
In the PNW, If the boat is not in the saltwater, then you have to winterize.

In the salon is a different story even in the water. I turn off the pump and open all the sink valves, so they drain down during the cold periods. Last winter I forgot to take 6 cans of diet pop out of the fridge. All 6 froze and popped. 2 cans of regular coke didn't. I guess the sugar in them dropped the freezing point just enough to protect them.

The gallon jug of distilled water for the batteries in the engine room never freezes during the coldest weather. Even with no heat, other than Zantrex charger running on standby, which is nothing.
__________________
Larry B
Careful . . .I Have a Generator and I'm not afraid to use it !
Edelweiss is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-29-2017, 03:03 PM   #5
Guru
 
Lepke's Avatar
 
City: Between Oregon and Alaska
Vessel Name: Charlie Harper
Vessel Model: Wheeler Shipyard 83'
Join Date: Jun 2016
Posts: 3,023
Some hopefully helpful info, I have a recording thermometer I set in non heated areas of my boat in winter. Mostly in the bilge areas and engineroom. My concern was almost all of my plumbing runs thru the bilge. My water tanks are next to the engineroom.
The lowest temps I recorded was 34°F in weather as low as zero, sometimes lasting for a week. This was in bilge areas below unheated cabins. Engineroom and unheated cabins never went below 45°F. I should have measured the water temps. Readings were between East Vancouver Island and the coastal Columbia River.
I live aboard, wood boat, at that time I heated with wood. Since then I have developed several options for heat (diesel stove, wood, pellets, engine and electric all tied to a diesel boiler) with pellets about half the cost of the next cheapest. All this started when diesel was $4/gallon. Now I heat unused cabins to 50° and bilges stay above 45°.
Lepke is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-29-2017, 06:54 PM   #6
Guru
 
tiltrider1's Avatar
 
City: Seattle
Vessel Name: AZZURRA
Vessel Model: Ocean Alexander 54
Join Date: Aug 2017
Posts: 4,309
If you are moored in saltwater, just about any heat source will be good enough. The golden rods are a great suggestion.

I have always kept Two 750w heat sources (one in bow, one in aft) going all winter. This is more of a condensation mold issue than a freezing issue but it solves both problems.
tiltrider1 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-29-2017, 08:07 PM   #7
Guru
 
dhays's Avatar
 
City: Gig Harbor
Vessel Name: Kinship
Vessel Model: North Pacific 43
Join Date: May 2015
Posts: 9,046
I have used the low wattage dehumidifying type of heater with a slow moving rotating fan in them for years. They work great at circulating the air and keeping it from getting two cold. The simple low wattage hot plate encased in a plastic case also work really well. I kept one of the latter in the ER to keep it above freezing.

Last year I installed an oil pan heater on the engine. 250 watts if I recall. I leave it plugged in all the time and leave it on unless we are anchored out. It warms the oil pan to 116 degrees and the top of the engine to about 60 degrees in the coldest winter weather here in the PNW. I really like it. A large Diesel engine at 60-116 degrees radiates a lot of heat to the surrounding areas.
__________________
Regards,

Dave
SPOT page
dhays is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-04-2017, 11:25 AM   #8
Senior Member
 
Jbear's Avatar
 
City: Anacortes
Vessel Name: Adelante
Vessel Model: Shin Shing, Eagle 35'
Join Date: Oct 2013
Posts: 154
Dave, same boat...top off the water tanks and don't worry about it. Ours have not frozen past the two fillers in the aft and that was only a little bit of ice. The tanks never came close. And yeah, they had shut the water off on the dock as it was freezing.
Jbear is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off


» Trawler Port Captains
Port Captains are TF volunteers who can serve as local guides or assist with local arrangements and information. Search below to locate Port Captains near your destination. To learn more about this program read here: TF Port Captain Program





All times are GMT -5. The time now is 04:08 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8 Beta 4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Search Engine Optimization by vBSEO 3.6.0
Copyright 2006 - 2012