What is your start window for cruising?

Mulf · Mar 6, 2012

Each year is different.

I have standing orders with the marina I have wintered Dreamboat in that I want her floating and ready to go on April 15th (except for this year because we are on Dreamboat in Florida right now). Some years I have sailed to our summer slip in T-Shirt & shorts others I have worn a winter coat, wool cap, etc. I have a cousin that I have done a 3 or 4 day overnight trip the first week of May for the last 5 or 6 years and he and I always have a great time. However, I do have heat pumps on the boat so if it looks to be too cold overnight we go in a Marina and plug in. Some years we need to and some we don't. You just have to be flexible as mother nature always has the final say.

RECESS · Mar 6, 2012

All year! It can get a little cool in the Panhandle of Florida, but never really cold. Well, what someone in a winter environment would consider cold. We stayed on the Pearson last weekend and turned on the central heat and it was like the tropics in there. In the past we have used a small rotating heater in the Oday 25.

Stu Jackson · Mar 6, 2012

While it doesn't get that cold here, I bought a catalytic heater a few years ago. Really helps take the chill off.

Uses the same canisters as the BBQ

http://www.coleman.com/product/blac.../2000004166?contextCategory=3000#.T1ZmZfW4KSo

Bob S · Mar 6, 2012

Stu,

When using that heater do you keep the companionway open? My wife isn't a huge sailing fan and it's tougher to get her out in colder weather. Our season here in the northeast is way too short especially when it's limited to warm weather sailors!

Stu Jackson · Mar 6, 2012

No, I close the hatches and the companionway boards. I leave the sliding hatch cracked about an inch, but we also have dorades on our boat. The trawler lamp and the heater (at foot level, of course) help a lot. All off when I hit the sack.

Ron20324 · Mar 6, 2012

My sailing club always has the "I.R.S. Cruise" the weekend after April 15th. The sailing is good, and we end up at the Pirates Cove Marina/Restaurant in Galesville so we have 110 if we need heaters. On then other end of the season, we do the "Blue Lips Cruise" the first weekend of November, to Pirates Cove again. It's usually warmer for the November than the April.

cb32863 · Mar 6, 2012

Well us folks up here in the North Country try to be sailing by the first of May. This year could be a little earlier as it has been a mild winter. Two years ago I was sailing on April 15th. Which is pretty good for MN.

cephius (Dave) · Mar 6, 2012

Our marina contract determines the start date. April 15. As cd32863 eluded, Knitted caps and gloves are required that early in the upper Midwest spring.

Since mine is a trailer boat, and I handle the launching myself, I'm usually the first in and last out.

Nodak7 · Mar 6, 2012

It depends on the year in this part of the country. I use April 22nd as my target since that has been the earliest we have ever launched. However, this year since it has been such a mild winter I am thinking maybe April 15th if the lake thaws. In reality, and not in my dreams, the average is just about May 1st. One year we were in the slip on May 6th and it was snowing so hard you could not see out of the cabin. The Admiral packed up and stated that there would be no sailing that day and we left for home.... I have a tendency to be a bit more diehard (she has other words for it) than her... LOL

Manny · Mar 6, 2012

Last year it was the beginning of May for me, the boat was in April 1st but if memory serves it either rained or the threat of rain was really high every weekend in April, so the boat never left the slip at all. The first nice weekend we immediately headed over to Rock Hall. I am hoping to finish up installing my newport heater in a few weeks, we'll see if that helps extend the season slightly (although it's been pretty warm so far this year). I think tomorrow I'm going for the first sail of the year

M

Tim R. · Mar 6, 2012

May 1 to December 1 here in Maine. We have a diesel fired hydronic heater...and a dog!

WayneH · Mar 6, 2012

I'm like Recess. The season never ends. We've sailed and anchored out in the winter time here. I haven't missed a President's Day weekend trip in three years. Once we wore shorts and got sunburned coming home.

Last weekend, we even had friends over to the boat for a party and tour of the Nina and Pinta in our marina.

It gets cold here. Not brisk cold like Colorado at 11,000 feet but mind freezing bone numbing cold of 40 degrees and 90% humidity. Coldest I've ever been. I had on four layers of clothes and the wind was still cutting through all the way to the bone.

Kettlewell · Mar 6, 2012

In southern New England it is traditionally May 1 through October 31, but in recent years springs have been freezing cold and/or so wet that nobody could get launched, and we have stayed out as late as June 15. However, that year we didn't miss anything because it rained every single day (really) in June. I painted one side of the bottom when the wind was blowing the rain one direction, and the other side of the bottom when the wind shifted around to the other direction. The year before that I had to delay doing my bottom because of frost in early June. Climate change has meant some strange spring weather for the last few years.

Sailm8 · Mar 6, 2012

All year for us. This is the best sailing time of the year. 85 tomorrow. Just came back from 4 day 3 night trip.

thinwater · Mar 6, 2012

Bad Obsession said:
I cruise the Chesapeake Bay region. I have always used May 1 as my starting point to do overnight cruises. This is because of several factors that include weather and overnight temps. I have sailed an overnight trip in April and it was brutal because of weather and it got freezing cold at night.

I do not have a heater aboard so this plays on my start window. I imagine that if I did have a heater then I would start a little earlier, but I also reflect that the winds tend to be higher in March and April and cold fronts an punish you during these times.

When do you start cruising? How do you stay warm in the cooler temps? What do you look for to throw those dock lines off?

Start date? I never stop, particularly this year. I've over-nighted every month.

* A real heater with sealed exhaust. Come on... it's a nice boat. Your car has a heater. Every crappy camper has a heater. Cool nights at anchor (with real heat) are far better than 95F nights, I promise you that. Very cozy and quiet.
* Big dodger and hard top.
* Clothes.

The biggest winter drawback is that little is open. Water is turned off on docks but carrying it is no big deal. Pump-outs are limited, though some are active year around.

http://sail-delmarva.blogspot.com/2009/12/winter-sailing.html

Jared1048 · Mar 6, 2012

I sail all year round but only because I have a new Wallas diesal heater. No way i'd get by without it!

Kettlewell · Mar 6, 2012

I lived aboard year-round in New England for many years. Never went out much as we were so covered with tarps and tied up with a spider web of lines. One winter was so cold the bubblers couldn't keep up with ice in the marina and I had to chop ice every morning and night for weeks. I would pull out the floating chunks of ice and pile them on the ice around the boat. Eventually I had a little boat shaped hole in the ice with my boat floating in it, and a wall of ice two feet high all around.

DianaOfBurlington · Mar 6, 2012

Traditionally around here (NJ) the season is April 15 to October 15. Most marinas pull pontoons by November 15. Not long ago I was a member at a club that had moorings in the river and it was very tempting to leave your boat out there. I always feared this, however, because of no electricity in case of a bilge pump having to run in an emergency when the water was 30 degrees and there is no one around to spot you if you have to row out.

I will not go into the water this year before June due to the restoration; but in my my mind the season is always the weekend before Palm Sunday (March 15-ish) to the weekend after Thanksgiving (Dec. 1-ish). I have seen too many very nice sailing days out there that only wanted a warm coat and a warmer drink. So long as the river is free of ice I see no reason not to limit time on the hard to what's needed to maintain the bottom. Our local marina will haul or launch year-round so long as there isn't ice (the Travel-Lift hates that stuff).