Good Old Boat Issue 142: Jan/Feb 2022
Skating ThroughWinter
lot of the guys are retired like me and they show up, two in the afternoon, and by 20 after, we’re playing. Very professional, these guys.” To add to the fun, a firepit constructed of a heavy sheet of metal and bricks is set up a safe distance away from the boat on the ice. An afternoon hockey game in full swing, left. Several of Dave's friends were Olympic players. Photo by Dave Gordon. Spirit, Dave's border collie, stands on the ice, while Ocean Spirit floats in the background, fully enclosed for winter living, below left. Photo by Dave Gordon.
hammer.” As he taps, he cracks the ice a little, and he can see its thick- ness in the crack. “It’s black and clear, you can see right through. You can see salmon.” Once the ice reaches about 4 inches, he taps all around where he knows the rink edges will be, testing the ice, and then marks the boundaries. “In about a week it’s a half a foot thick, 7, 8 inches. And it’s go time.” They set up LED lights on poles, add some tunes with a Bluetooth speaker, and people start showing up, day and night, to skate and play.
“The manager skates, he and his kids and wife skate. The marina staff even shovel the rink and go skating. They’re really great,” Dave says. “Last winter we lit it more, we had like 10 lights on it coming
off batteries, and we had some really good hockey players here. I have two friends who were Olympic hockey players. These guys, they hear about the rink, and two or three days a week, this is happening. A
There, the skaters gather around the fire, warming up with the heat of the flames and steaming mugs of hot chocolate. By February, the skating and hockey parties kick into high gear. It’s what Dave
Winter on Ice-DK
Many fulltime liveaboards winter over in his marina, Dave says, and like him, they have older boats that can withstand the pinch of ice. “Good old boats are conducive to living aboard in northern climates because their hulls are much thicker,” he says. “They’re simply stronger and have more integrity and therefore can endure the hostile winter weather much better.” But living through a Canadian winter aboard requires more than just the right boat; there’s a lot of preparation involved in making sure you stay safe and warm. First and foremost is the cover to protect the boat from the inevitable snowfall and help keep heat in. Dave builds a sturdy frame of electrical conduit over the deck, then secures thick, clear shrink wrap to it, creating a dome-like enclosure that
encourages snow and ice to slide right off. He cuts a section to install a full-size door to easily access the cockpit. While some winter liveaboards use bubblers to keep water from freezing around the hull, Ocean Spirit has a radiant heating system of 11 copper “rads” located throughout the boat beneath the floors. They move water that’s been warmed by the diesel Dickinson heater, which also heats the cabin. He also has Planar forced-air heat that runs off 12 volts. These systems heat the boat enough to maintain a thin moat of water around the hull, and they ward off the winter enemy of conden- sation in the bilge and cabin. He leaves the engine un-winterized; the boat stays warm enough to protect it, but Dave still runs it every three weeks for about ten minutes to make sure all is well.
The marina maintains a submerged water system that operates under the ice all winter long, some 20 feet down. Dave has a hose plumbed into it, so whenever he needs freshwater, he simply brings up the hose and fills his tanks. The marina’s portable pump-out cart (called the honey wagon) handles the holding and blackwater tanks. The sails spend the winter folded in bags up on the foredeck under the tent. Though challenging, winter is a quieter, unique time. There’s far less human activity at the marina, and wildlife is less timid about venturing out. From his porthole, Dave has spotted deer nearby and has seen beaver dragging pieces of wood across the frozen lake. He’s also seen coyotes, and quite often he can hear their calls during the night.
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