Winter (Docklines) Seamanship question

[Night Sailor]

All you guys in So. Cal or S. Fla go ahead and laugh.
My copy of Chapman's doesn't cover this situation and this Florida native has sailed in high Northern latitudes but only in nonwinter weather so wonders if there is a solution.
I went down to check on the X and it's dock lines this a.m. Temp. 22 F., wind chill 10 F. wind gusting to 25mph. Wind from nnw was directly on stern quarter, pushing spray from waves up on the stern and finger pier where it froze. Motor and stern covered with a sheet of ice. I wanted to adjust a bow spring line to take some strain off the stern cleat and line, but all the lines on the boat and dock cleats were frozen solid. The only thing I could think of was using a bucket to get 40 F. lake water to pour on the cleats or the boat until the lines melted enough to uncleat them. That was a miserable job that took way longer than I wanted too endure with ungloved fingers.

Question: Is there a way to keep lines from being frozen in the first place? A faster way to unfreeze them without the use of chemicals that would harm the boat or the environment?



Mod's edit: Title amplified, extraneous Global Warming posts split to Pub -fc

[aya16]

you answered your own question...move to a warmer climate.


what about useing a bug sprayer you pump up with hot water in it?
or put the boat on the trailer for the winter.

when it hits 40 deg. here we all stay inside because we only have tee shirts and shorts...

[Night Sailor]

Aha. The bugsprayer of hot water is a good idea I'll use. When I go back out to the boat again tonight I'll be prepared.

Putting the boat on the trailer is a negative. I'd have to pay the $248 slip rental anyway to keep the best slip, and give 30 days notice before vacating. It's seldom that two or three weeks goes by that I don't have a chance to take the boat out for a few hours, even in our winter. We had 70 F. temps just last week. Ice storms and snow that last more than a few days are not common in the DFW area or I might have encountered this problem before. Before when docks and lines were frozen on other in the water boats, I didn't see a need to adjust any lines while they were frozen.

[waternwaves]

17 deg at night, warming to 28 F during the day, The part of puget sound (port susan) I live on is freezing over.... , aparantly enough fresh water spills into this bay to freeze before it mixes with the salt water,
never seen this in 45 years.....power is out about every 5 days......for a half a day or so......

global warming.......yeah sure...........right here.......... I think weather dispruption is much more discernable than global warming.

The solar energy delivered to the planet changes follows very closely to the sunspot cycles..... however....... where this energy accumulates........ now that is the 64K question.........


In general......

3 strand rope holds less water than woven sheath (kernmantle) style ropes.

and though it makes tying knots much tougher........ lubricating the ropes with glycerin or even beeswax prevents their absorption of water, and makes them much easier to chip the ice off. There are also commerical waterproofing solutions suitable for ropes from Mammut, Edelrid, Mcnett, and other companies.

[kmclemore]

Yes, but put a bit of alcohol in the water before you heat it.. it will help prevent re-freezing!

[Night Sailor]

Global warming is a misnomer that the popular media seems bent on beating to death at the expense of public understanding. The real name of the concern which makes sense for people in hotter and colder than normal places is: global climate change.

I had thought of adding alcohol to the mix but not glycerine. I'll have to check and see if the glycerine has any bad news for the nice bass, catfish and other denizens of my dock.

I do use three sand rope for it's shock absorber qualities. Maybe I'll go ahead and add a 1/4 inch chain for the dock cleat end. IF icy it might break loose easier and reduce wear on the dock line. I always leave the lilnes on the dock when sailing.

[theroche]

Luckily, I pulled my to apply bottom paint and have not had time to put her back in the slip before the winter warning hit Austin. I use Kevin's suggested method with one slight modification. I add a little water to the "Appletons" and all the winter problems go away.
mike

[Bawgy]

had 75 degrees and 15-25 mph all weekend . Suppose to be a high of 30 wednesday. Cover your cleats with a plastic cover big enough to cover the cleat and extra line . When you remove the plastic you can easily adjust the line

[Night Sailor]

Duh! Thanks Bawgy. Cover the cleats. How simple. I'll sew some from sunbrella scraps or maybe vinyl with elastic or velcro fasterners on the order of winch covers.

[Frank C]

NS,

You're right about your docklines thread - sorry, it half-migrated to Global Warming, left-right PUB stuff. I'm fixing it for you. All the BS posts are moved to a new thread in the Pub.

[mtc]

Ice on the moring lines? How easily we forget. I'm a Jersey boy who's lived here in sunny Florida for two decades now - I was out in shorts today playing on the boat in 62 degrees of sunny weather.

First thing pops into my mind is to make covers out of any canvas-type material so they're a little bigger than the lines. This way they'll freeze and not the lines. You can tap them to get the ice to break off. You'll still need to do the bug sprayer on the cleats, unless you make a cover for them too. The point is to not fight the freezing - let it. Just make line condoms.

I've used waterproofing on my lines (back in the day) but you're right to check on the impact on the lake stock.

The beeswax idea sounds interesting too.

You'll probably want to stay away from most commercial de-icing solutions because of what it'll do to the fish.