More Letters From Paradise Bubble Bubble In my previous entry concerning getting a sailboat ready for winter in Michigan, I forgot to mention a couple of things. First we seldom see lightning here in Honolulu, so no problem for sailboats with tall masts. These large boats have their masts stepped to their keels, so lightning is no problem. The boat is grounded. Not so for sailboats whose masts are stepped to the top of the boats cabin. If struck by lightning there is no ground, all electrical stuff is fried and even worse. The solution to the problem is very easy. You buy a set of auto battery jumper cables. You clamp one end of the cable to one of the shrouds that hold up the mast, and throw the other end over the side into the water. The boat is then founded. We had a lot of lightning where we lived, and I never had any electronics fried. Another interesting fact about getting a sailboat ready for winter is to leave the boat in the water. In order to do this you must lay a rubber hose with holes in it down on the bottom of the water under the boat. The hose is connected to an air compressor. Ice will not form in moving water. Bubbles from the hose keeps the water moving around the boat, preventing the formation of ice. It looks strange to see all the empty docks covered with snow, and a couple of sailboats floating free in a puddle of water,surrounded by snow covered ice. An electric heater tries to beat back the cold below, but frost still gathers on the port hole glass and bulkheads. Kind of chilly. Sailors I knew who chose to bubble their boats only slept below, wrapped in thick bedding. They didnt spend any time there during the daytime. For them it was quickly up in the morning, and a mad dash to the clubhouse for a shave and a shower. This was not for everyone, but it was cheaper than having to have your boat raised, and then put back into the water in the spring. Aloha Grant
Posted on: Sun, 12 Oct 2014 01:34:52 +0000
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