• Untitled Document

    Join us on March 29rd, 7pm EST

    for the CBEC Virtual Meeting

    All EYO members and followers are welcome to join the fun and get to know the guest speaker!

    See the link below for login credentials and join us!

    March Meeting Info

    (dismiss this notice by hitting 'X', upper right)

Bit of an emergency here....advice from our Northern Captains >>>

Tom Metzger

Sustaining Partner
Tex - Wait until you are out of this anomaly before making any future plans. If it's like some of us suggest, no damage, don't make any changes to your life. If global cooling is taking over then start listening to us northerner, but until then trust AlGore.

Ken - I have no idea if there is a drain on the muffler. Can't get to it without major effort. Up in the frozen north - 40 miles from Quebec - I ran a gallon of -50 through the engine followed by a gallon of -100. That never let me down with temps dropping to -25*f occasionally. The -50 clears out the water and the -100 provides the protection for the muffler and the heat exchanger. Bypassed and drained the water heater. The water systems pumped out, then -50 which diluted the remaining water, got pumped out, repeat a few times. About 4 gallons total for three tanks allowing for clearing all of the lines. Pulled the plug on the head to drain it, and ignored the bilge and holding tank. Rain in the fall filled the bilge almost to the cabin sole one year and no problem. See pic post #7.
 

william.haas

1990 Ericson 28-2
@1911tex, if you PM me I’ll give you my phone number and we can chat through a Chicago winterization procedure learned over a few boats and many good and bad recommendations from folks over the years. And possibly this has inspired me to write a blog about what we do. Will also write more of a response and thoughts when it’s a little less late. Hoping all is well.
 

Loren Beach

O34 - Portland, OR
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
Tom, there was a drain on our former (factory) water lift muffler. Unfortunately they installed it with the little plastic drain plug invisible and against some other structure. i.e. unusable.
My new muffler - from the same company - installed in 2018, has the plug on the opposite side of the bottom, so with a bit of a stretch I could drain it if needed.
While any visit to the mechanical systems on a Hun__er, reminds me of how hugely much better EY did this stuff, even EY would sometimes do really illogical installations.

A friend of mine has worked on Swans, and tells me that he has found occasional & equally strange plumbing systems on them, too. He likes Ericson's, I should add.
 
Last edited:

toddster

Curator of Broken Parts
Blogs Author
Appears to be a bit warmer on the other side of the lake. Probably the high rent district. Ha!
Actually, I was arriving in Davos one summer day on the train when the sky turned black and ice started dumping out of the sky. Windsurfers on the lake were frantically headed for the beach. Next morning, there were rigs all over the beach covered in ice. By that afternoon, we were on an idyllic sylvan hike up on the slopes.

For that matter, late one July night I was driving north on Whidbey Island toward Coupeville when I noticed some crazy spotlights turning circles on low clouds up ahead. Some weird advertising stunt, I imagined. I came around a curve in the highway and encountered two to four inches of hailstones piled up on the road and half a dozen cars in the ditch with their headlights pointed to the sky. I slammed the 4-runner into four wheel drive (on-demand shifting was brand new at the time) and managed to stay on the road while decelerating - the whole patch was 100 yards wide at the most - and back into summer again.
 

David Grimm

E38-200
My bilge freezes every year no matter how much -50 I dump in. If the boat is in water you should be fine. This was a few weeks ago. My buddies working on their boat during a snow storm. Gotta love NY!
 

Attachments

  • 20210207_122836.jpg
    20210207_122836.jpg
    195.5 KB · Views: 17

kiwisailor

Member III
Blogs Author
A big issue is when the thaw starts and if the bilge pump has been left in the "auto" mode. Often the bilge pumps burn out from still frozen hoses or frozen pump even though the bilge pump switch may have activated with water above the frozen ice in the bilge.
 

kiwisailor

Member III
Blogs Author
Just make sure you do it with the engine actually running, and not just cranking over. Without the exhaust pressure of a running engine, you risk filling the lift muffler and exhaust hose and water- locking the pistons.

Speaking of the lift muffler, I think the Northeast guys who haul-out during the winter either drain the muffler first, or run a second gallon through the system. Any water dilution of the antifreeze seriously degrades the freeze protection.
Yip I winterize by running pink anti freeze through the raw water system.
 

1911tex

Sustaining Member
A big issue is when the thaw starts and if the bilge pump has been left in the "auto" mode. Often the bilge pumps burn out from still frozen hoses or frozen pump even though the bilge pump switch may have activated with water above the frozen ice in the bilge.
Another excellent point, I never thought about the bilge pump vs. still frozen hoses!!!! Another source of my pain waiting for the thaw over the next couple of days so the roads are drivable ! We have 2 thick layers of black ice with 7" snow sandwiched in between.
 

1911tex

Sustaining Member
Photo below are fresh "frozen turkeys" in our backyard under the trees !

Screenshot_20210214-074728_Facebook.jpg
 

Attachments

  • 308486FF-68A1-4AA8-B202-BEBE8B76CC99.jpeg
    308486FF-68A1-4AA8-B202-BEBE8B76CC99.jpeg
    170.7 KB · Views: 15
Last edited:

David Grimm

E38-200
1911tex, It gets even worse when it warms up fast and theres a rain storm. Bilge pump and hoses frozen and no where for the water to go! This is all to be anticipated in NY.
 

toddster

Curator of Broken Parts
Blogs Author
Another excellent point, I never thought about the bilge pump vs. still frozen hoses!!!! Another source of my pain waiting for the thaw over the next couple of days so the roads are drivable ! We have 2 thick layers of black ice with 7" snow sandwiched in between.
Yeah, I had that issue when the boat was on the hard in the yard but never when it was floating, even though frozen into the ice. And some monster icicles grew from the scuppers and drains.
 

Filkee

Sustaining Member
Another excellent point, I never thought about the bilge pump vs. still frozen hoses!!!! Another source of my pain waiting for the thaw over the next couple of days so the roads are drivable ! We have 2 thick layers of black ice with 7" snow sandwiched in between.
Amen. Don't run your pumps until you're sure they've thawed. Even with a bilge full of pink it all turns to slush.
 

nquigley

Sustaining Member
Cold?

Interesting comment from Sailing Uma--at -18F degrees, their Pex water lines are unaffected. Unlike copper.

But, ...they had to run a heater in a locker under the sink to get the sink to drain because the water in the through-hull and seacock was frozen because they are below the waterline (surrounding seawater was at freezing point or below). The dock's water lines were, of course, frozen so they had to fill Jerry cans from a delivery van, carry them to the boat and then pour them directly into their tanks because the H20 deck-fill was frozen.
I'm amazed they've been able to operate a 100% electric boat in those cold conditions at such high latitudes (feeble sunshine at best). Surely they are plugged into shore power.
 

1911tex

Sustaining Member
I am hoping per the many comments from our terrific members to this post...that our Lake surface temp of mid 50 degrees will have prevented a lot of frozen damage on our Ericson, from our Central Texas 24 hour record breaking outside air temps from "0" to 15 degrees and no sun over the past 5 days and now a slow thaw. I will find out Sunday when there is full road and marina access ! Cannot thank everyone enough! What a terrific forum. Should be able to post a full review Monday. Hey, after 5 days, we just got our full electricity back at home without rolling blackouts! I consider us very fortunate as there are hundreds of thousands of Texans without electricity or water! And this is Texas, our nations largest energy producer by far !!
 
Last edited:

1911tex

Sustaining Member
Spent the day going through bow to stern, every electrical, water, HVAC, bilge, etc……could not find a thing out of whack! Marina said outside temps reached 4 degrees several times and never over 15 degrees for the 5 days. Electricity for heaters were non existent...marina has no emergency backup for shore power. Texas power and water is in bad shape. And Texas leads the nation in energy supply! Mostly due to poor state government...but no place here for politics.

Started the engine…instantaneous…not even one rev or the starter. Waited till it warmed up to reach operating temp…went below to watch the beautiful M25 engine and there was water spewing everywhere! The bilge was full…..oh shit!

Stuck my head in the engine room got soaking wet, being careful of the rotating belt…but noticed 2 fresh water hoses raining water everywhere. Shut engine down, crawled into the pit and noticed the two old fresh water hoses I had never replaced split in the center…I assume weak old hoses...light freeze swelling. Removed the two hoses, installed new hoses (lucky had spares in the locker), replaced 1 other hose that I had not replaced prior….which took all of 1 hour. Reopened the thru-hull for fresh water into the engine…monitored the problem and not a single leak….spent the next 4 hours cleaning up. All fresh lake water, so no problems there. No damage. Pumped 4 gallons of water out of the bilge. Ran the engine to operating temps 3 times during the day and all is dry. No problems. Dry bilge. No other freeze problems…20 gallon water tanks, head tank, a couple dozen bottles of drinking water and soup cans in the icebox, etc…no problems.

Really lucky considering, knock on wood…no need for insurance filing…Thanks to all of your helpful inputs...the 57 degree surface lake temps against the hull saved the day. All boat decks in the marina were still covered in ice and snow when I arrived at 0630...temps today reached 65 degrees...by the time I left 1800 hours...no more ice/snow. Something positive…the engine room is CLEAN! Happy happy happy. Extremely rare freeze occurrence...the last recorded not even close was 1949! Thank you, thank you, thank all of you for your very kind input....!!!
 

frick

Member III
A boat in the water will always stay much warmer than a boat on the hard. The water is always warmer than the sub freezing air. This may save you from any breakage. In NY I always put the pink antifreeze into the box and drain the fresh water system... it stay colder here for much longer than your storm in Texas. My guess is that your will make it out with minual damage.
 
Top