Getting down to 28F tonight and 27F tomorrow night, and the boat is on the lake...

[IDBoating]

...with the engine cooling system full of water. So I lowered the AirDock to put the hull into the ~50F water and put an incandescent light in the engine compartment to dump some heat into it.

Two observations:

1) "Global warming"?!?.

2) Good thing we can still get some incandescent bulbs. An inefficient, heat-wasting bulb is precisely what I want in there tonight.

[Cloud]

Is that going to be enough?

[Ewok]

Yes, don't worry, the lake water will keep it from freezing. As long as the running gear and as much hull is in the water as possible it will be fine. No need for the light bulb. I've had my boat in TX on many nights like this in the water and it was fine. All the boats sitting in the water in AK can't be wrong.

[IDBoating]

Kinda figured the lake water would be enough but the bulb is extra insurance so I can sleep. As for the AK boats I wonder if they use closed cooling with some sort of self-draining raw water system. The water still freezes at the same temp in AK so something is protecting them. My former jetboat had an inboard Mercury V6 and it was entirely self-draining.

[Booms]

You will be ok without the light and the boat in the water.
Just because it is below freezing for a few nights does not mean that water will freeze. It takes a lot of energy to freeze water in a boat. 2 nights of freezing temps will not freeze the water in the block. Plus the low temp of 27 might only be for 2-3 hours over the course of the night.

[wired1236]

I would think the heater core would be the first thing to think about. It should be ok with your situation, but since its thin aluminum with small viens of water in it and is tucked up high under the helm, it would be the first thing to go.

Sent from my GT-P5113 using Tapatalk

[IDBoating]

You will be ok without the light and the boat in the water. Just because it is below freezing for a few nights does not mean that water will freeze.

True, but it's been cool even in the daytime lately so it's not like the overall internal temperature has gotten real high. Yesterday's peak at the lake was 41F.

It takes a lot of energy to freeze water in a boat.

I can't help it... it takes the removal of energy to freeze water. Yeah, I know. I'm the kind of guy who also laughs at physics jokes that involve spherical chickens of uniform density in a vacuum.

[IDBoating]

I would think the heater core would be the first thing to think about.

I would agree, but my boat doesn't have a heater. It was originally built for the Florida market. I'm not sure they have heaters even in the houses in Florida.

[boardman74]

You will be fine as long as its in the high 20's and 40's during the day. The warmer water does act as a very good insulator. Like EWOK said even without the light you'd be fine, but for the pennies to run it at night its cheap insurance.

[IDBoating]

That's what I thought too. I don't really expect anything to freeze and haven't worried when temps have gone a couple of degrees below freezing but when I saw numbers down toward the mid-20's I figured a 60W bulb would help me sleep better. I'm less worried about the max cold than the fact we've had sustained cooler temps for some time now.

Last night when I was putting in the light I had a solid and non-thawing layer of hail and snow on the boat cover. The dock was iced over this morning when I checked on things.

[wired1236]

I would agree, but my boat doesn't have a heater. It was originally built for the Florida market. I'm not sure they have heaters even in the houses in Florida.

You know what they say about Assuming...we'll I assumed.

[mls6722]

Bring it to Seattle - 73 tomorrow, 77 Wednesday and 82 Thursday

[Cloud]

Bring it to Seattle - 73 tomorrow, 77 Wednesday and 82 Thursday

Indeed! Can't wait.

[whiteflash watersports]

We have heaters in our houses in Florida we just dont use them The air conditioning system doubles as heater system with a heat pump. Ours gets turned on maybe once or twice in the winter. We also have fire places which is just ridiculous if you ask me. People actually pay extra to have them when they build their homes. When we built our house they wanted 3 grand for a fire place - Crazy

Bring your boat here and you will have no freezing worries and you can ride year round.

[IDBoating]

Bring your boat here and you will have no freezing worries and you can ride year round.

Ironically, our boat CAME from your neighborhood! Fortes, whom I consider to be the best vehicle dealer (ANY kind of vehicle) I've ever worked with.