GL: Canal Winter

[fred]

David,

Before I moved north, the boat spent the previous 5 winters in the water, 
Hackensack River, NJ, where there was all kinds of snow, freezing rain and 
frequent freezes and thaws and the gelcoat stayed just fine.  Near as I can 
tell, there are no stress cracks in the fiberglass anywhere on the boat for 
the ice to take hold.  I know a few American Tug owners have experienced a 
bit of a bulge at the botton of the stainless steel railings due to frost.  
They now recommend you drill a tiny drain hole at the bottom of each 
upright section.  I never had that problem either.

The boat was never covered back in New Jersey, but here since it would be 
stored "nose down" I felt deep snow might accumulate up against the rear 
door, so I had that section of the boat covered with shrink wrap to prevent 
water from leaking into the cabin thru the door seals.  The rubber seals on 
the aft side windows sometimes slip loose so I had that covered also, as 
well as the two small windows at the rear of the pilot house.

Up here in New York it mostly freezes and stays frozen all winter, whereas 
in New Jersey the warmer weather causes daily freezing and thawing, which 
makes things worse in Jersey.  American Tug did a really nice job building 
the boat and I have had no problems at all with the fiberglass.

We shall see what happens, in April when spring is rumored to return.

Fred
Tug 44

----------------------------------------
From: "David H Sorenson" <davidsorenson at juno.com>
Sent: Sunday, February 15, 2009 4:00 PM
To: fred at tug44.org, great-loop at lists.samurai.com
Subject:  Canal Winter 

By the way, are you comfortable leaving your tug uncovered all winter?
Snow won't hurt gelcoat, but if moisture gets into cracks and then
re-freezes, you could have trouble. (nice boat BTW).

David Sorenson
Duluth