Seven Steps to Winterize and Protect Your Boat

Copied from a Post on November 6, 2013 by andrew (http://bwsailing.com/cc/2013/11/06/seven-steps-to-winterize-and-protect-your-cruising-sailboat/)

Here’s another great tip courtesy of skippertips.com…

Are you sure that no water has become trapped in the hoses aboard your small cruising boat? Have you gone through a seven-point-checklist to protect your small boat diesel from damage over the cold months?

Add extra years of quality sailing life when you follow the advice of author John Vigor. In his book, “The Practical Mariner’s Book of Knowledge“, John V. goes into great detail on how to winterize your boat–the right way! Follow these seven steps to give your boat the best protection possible…

Cover your boat to prevent water intrusion. Ventilate to allow air to flow and keep the boat dry.

1. Think “Water Trap”

Open up hatches and access lockers. Look behind the head. Any water line with a low bend can trap water, allow it to freeze, and crack the line. John Vigor recommends you add “a 50/50 solution of vodka” to your water lines that come from the water tank.

2. Cover and Ventilate

Rain water, sleet, snow, and condensation combine like termites to find any opening, crack, or crevice. Use covers to divert the water overboard. Allow ventilation through the cover to keep the boat dry and problem-free.

3. Attack the Hull

Scrape the bottom before it dries. Those bottom residential crispy critters will dry like epoxy unless you remove them the moment your hull exits the water. Next, plug up all thru-hulls, such as the engine raw-water intake, transducers, and seacock openings. Remove vents and cowls from the deck and replace them with tight fitting covers. This keeps dirt, dust, and insects out of your lines and interior.

4. Replace Metal Protectors

Remove and replace all zincs from the bottom of the hull. Even if they look alright, do it anyway. It’s cheap insurance and you won’t need to fool with it in the spring. Next, replace the pencil zincs in your small boat diesel raw water system. Call your engine manufacturer if you are unsure where they’re located.

Skipper-Tip
What are the best zincs? Look at the last letter of the specification code. If it’s the letter J, or a higher alphabet letter, you have the highest quality zinc on the market!

5. Work Through this 5-Point Engine Check

Follow your small boat diesel manuals winterization process. If you are unsure, or you find the manual unclear, follow these seven-points…

Drain the raw-water system.

Add fresh coolant to your fresh water system.

Change your engine oil and engine oil filter.

Spray lubricant over your engine body (**see note below).

Squirt oil into the air intake manifold to protect pistons and cylinders.*Note…
Take care not to get any spray on your hoses or belts;
lubricants like WD-40 cause rubber products to soften.

6. Make a Warning Sign

Prevent damage to your small sailboat diesel in the spring. You don’t want to start her up until you remove the plugs on the intake. Use a magic marker and poster-board and make two signs: “DO NOT START ENGINE UNTIL ALL PLUGS ARE REMOVED”. Post one on the engine hatch cover and another next to your starter button. This will insure you against costly engine damage later on.

7. Remove and Charge All Batteries

Take the house and engine-start batteries off the boat and store them in a dry room. Hook up a battery charger and check them once a week to make sure they maintain a full charge throughout the winter.

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Changes in the Oyster Harbor Shoreline 1825 to today

The North-South running inlet off of the Chesapeake Bay, called Fishing Creek got its name as the wetlands bordering the creek were a prime nursery for every kind of fish that lives in the Bay. Oyster harbor is one of three communities, including Arundel on the Bay, and Fishing Creek Farms, that border Fishing Creek.

Lafayette’s troops camped in the area on their way to defeat the British at Yorktown in 1781. His troops used Fishing Creek as a place to fish.

In 1776, Fort Horn was built between Fishing Creek and the Severn River, to protect Annapolis harbor from invasion by the British fleets during the Revolutionary War and again during the War of 1812.

In the mid to late 1800s oysters were stored in a small harbor call Oyster Creek, where an Oyster processing plant once processed oysters that were delivered to Annapolis via what is now called Arundel on the Bay road.

Lighthouse Service built a shore based lighthouse in 1825, in what is now Thomas Point Park. It was rebuilt in 1840 due to erosion.

Combined NOAA Charts from 1825 to 9163 showing shoreline changes

The seawall eroded away in only a few years due to currents, and the rising level of the Chesapeake Bay from destruction of wetlands as construction along the bay boomed.

The mouth of Fishing Creek originally went into the South River, but after some large storms between 1857 and 1899, it shifted to the entrance it has today.

Part of the 1857 Chesapeake Bay cart set showing Fishing Creek closed on the east side and Oyster Creek about the same as it is today.

Tides and currents keep trying to fill in the mouth and keep water levels there at only about four feet deep. The Coast Guard maintains the channel into Fishing creek at a working depth of 6’ for its vessels. In October 2013, the channel was dredged to 9' by the Coast Guard for future larger USCG vessels to enter the creek.  The new channel is very narrow, with little place to anchor beside it.

Scan of original NOAA charts from surveys dome in 1847, 1899 and 1910 of Oyster Harbor and Thomas Point (BLue was original shoreline in 1847, Black is shoreline in 1899 and red is land fill done for the Bay Ridge resort in early 1900s.

In 1875 the screw-pile Thomas Point Lighthouse was built at a cost of $35,000. The lantern room, accessed by a ships ladder from the second level, is situated forty-three feet above mean high tide. A fourth-order Fresnel lens, manufactured by L. Sautter & Co., was previously mounted atop the cast-iron pedestal that now supports a modern beacon. The historic lens has been removed to the Commander’s Office of the Coast Guard in Baltimore.

Various methods have been used over the years to protect the station from winter ice flows on the Bay. Thomas Point Lighthouse was endangered in the winter of 1877, when heavy sheets of ice damaged the screwpile foundation. The crushing impact of the ice overturned the lens, damaging it badly enough that it had to be replaced. As a result, an ice-breaker consisting of “three wrought-iron screwpiles, connected together by double channel-iron beams, surmounted by heavy cast-iron caps, securely bolted together” was positioned ninety feet north of the light station. Over the years, tons of riprap have been placed about the piles to provide further protection from ice and scouring.

Thomas Point Light 1928

By 1964, Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse was the only manned station on the Chesapeake Bay. Four Coastguardsmen divvied up lighthouse duties, with each taking a week of shore leave every four weeks. A lightship tender made a monthly delivery of fresh water, fuel and supplies. This state of affairs lasted until the 1970’s, when a three-man crew, with a two-weeks-on, one-week-off rotation took over. The crewman arriving at the station would bring groceries and mail for the week, and the one leaving would tote away the trash. Scott Kaufman, stationed at the lighthouse in the early 1980’s, commented that living at the station gave him plenty of time to think. “All the problems you have. You can just sit out here and think out all the angles. I’ll even sit here and think about my friend’s problems. That’s how much time I have.”

Coast Guardsmen 1968 at Thomas Point Light

In 1972 the station felt the effects of tropical storm Agnes, which raised 23-foot waves and brought them crashing down upon the cottage and foundation. The lighthouse managed to survive the assault with only minimal damage, but for a while there was some question if it would survive the Coast Guard’s announcement that same year that the lighthouse would be “evaluated for cost effectiveness.” In the past, other screwpile lighthouses had simply been set afire, and then replaced by a low-maintenance structure mounted on the old pile foundation. Public outcry, bolstered by politicians looking for a cause in an election year, managed to change the Coast Guard’s plans, and on January 23, 1975, Thomas Point Lighthouse was granted historic landmark status. The Coast Guard staffed the lighthouse until it was fully automated in 1986.

Interior of Thomas Point Light

Under the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000, a consortium of four partners (the Annapolis Maritime Museum, the Chesapeake Chapter of the U.S. Lighthouse Society, the City of Annapolis and Anne Arundel County) took control of the Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse in 2004. The City of Annapolis serves as the owner of the station, leasing it to the Chesapeake Chapter of the U.S. Lighthouse Society, which acts as the managerial organization. The Annapolis Maritime Museum houses exhibits on the lighthouse and serves as a shore-departure point for tours to the lighthouse, while Anne Arundel County offers expert advice on how best to preserve the light and the surrounding environment. Lighthouse enthusiasts are now fortunate to have the opportunity to tour the only unaltered screwpile lighthouse in the United States remaining attached to its original foundation. Today it is one of the most recognizable symbols of Maryland and the Chesapeake Bay.

References and more reading: http://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=425, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Point_Shoal_Light

Getting back to the shoreline of Oyster Harbor, the waters around the middle Chesapeake Bay were filled with oysters.  The were natural Oyster Bars that had mounds of oysters, living ones attached to the shells of thousands of generations of dead oysters.  The bars were charted specifically for oyster men to harvest.

1906 Chart of the Oyster Bars off of Oyster Harbor.  Each bar had a name.

The remains of the land based Thomas Point light and the Fishing Creek opening into the Bay are clearly indicated on this chart from 1906.

If you drag the bottom of the Bay outside of Oyster Harbor today, you will find very few oysters remaining from these huge Oyster Bars indicated in 1906.

I have yet to find the exact year(s) the end of Fishing Creek opened up.  Eventually we will add this Blog data to the Oyster Harbor community web site.

If you have historic photos or information, please feel free to submit them the community at:
https://podio.com/webforms/5980990/466054

Reporting damage or submitting suggestions

For the upcoming year I am experimenting with web based suggestion forms, damage report forms and a community rule violation form.  These are webforms that work from PCs, iPhones, smartphones or tablets.

I am hoping that as people walk to ride through the community they will use these forms to report damage or maintenance needs, report a violation of our rules, or make suggestions to better the community.

Eventually, if it works well, we will add these forms to the community website.

Damage Reporting Form

PODIO provides project management software you can build yourself.

Suggestions Form

PODIO provides project management software you can build yourself.

Community Rule Violations Form

Webform built by PODIO - Project and CRM Software that works like you.

Thanks,
Eric

FEMA Flood Zones

For anyone interested, here is where Oyster Harbor sits in the FEMA Flood Zone map.  Flood insurance and premiums are affected by your home's location within the flood zones.  So is rain runoff and permit applications.

Oyster Harbor with FEMA Flood Zone Overlay

Additional information is available from your insurance company, Anne Arundel County, and MD Dept of the Environment.  If you have questions, or need assistance with finding more information, feel free to email me.

Summer of 2013 Recap

As another great summer of life in Oyster Harbor comes to an end, we look forward to a change of seasons and new events and happening in and around our Community.

Here is a list of some of what the summer brought, and events for this Autumn.

Slips and Floating Docks

We had 100% of  the community slips rented this year.  We also rented half of the floating dock spaces for small boats, and expect an increase in requests as people learn about how convenient it is to keep the dink or kayak on a floating dock for just $144 a year.

Fishing Creek Debris

We did one big clean-up in the early summer of debris and old crab pots.  We collected a large tree stump and a mix of other debris as well.

Water Quality

We had a sewage spill in Oyster Creek that raised the bacteria count for a couple weeks.  The odd mix of heavy rain in June and much less rain in July and August evened out the dead zones in the Bay with last year – albeit last year the worst time were in July and early August, while this year it was in June.

Here is a link to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation ENews Letter for more up-to-date info: ENews Letter.

Hurricanes

Nothing has yet to come our way.  But while this is great news, the heavier side of the hurricane season is yet to come.

 

 http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

Watching your wake

I have personally witnessed multiple occasions where fast moving boats with large wakes have passed close to Kayaks, paddle boards, and small sailboat on Fishing Creek.  Please remember that you are responsible for your wake.  On the positive side I have noticed that many boats pulling tubes or skiing have been respectful of the now wake zone at the top of Fishing Creek and keep the high speed activities more towards the mouth.  Thank you.

Fishing & Crabbing

While fishing has been good this year around on the Oyster Harbor and much of the Middle Bay, crabbing has been not been as good. DNR is expecting the good fishing to remain for the rest of the season.  As a reminder, a fishing license is required for all Oyster Harbor public docks, piers, and surrounding waters (unless you are under 16), and all fishing regulations must be followed.  Here is a link to the Maryland DNR regulations. - http://www.dnr.state.md.us/fisheries/regulations/table.asp?c=recreational

Annapolis Boat Shows

For those interested in boating, this year the Annapolis Power and Sailboats shows have switched places.  The Powerboat show will be first, October 3-6 and the Sailboat show will be October 10-14.  In addition, the Mid-Atlantic Small Craft Festival will be held in St Michaels October 4-6.

As always, we thank everyone for paying for their slips on time, for respecting other people’s boats and property, and for getting the most from our Community’s Piers and Harbors.

Summer 2013

Its that time of year again for boating around Oyster Harbor and the Chesapeake Bay.

Here are a few tips for having a safe and low stress time.

Launching

If you plan to use the boat launch to launch you boat from a trailer, please be respectful of others in the launch area, and of the people living around it.  If you can, please drive your car and trailer home after you launch your boat.  If you can't do that, please park your car so it allows room for others to launch and park.

One great suggestion from a local resident is to leave a note with your name, cell phone number and time you think you will be returning.  That way, if someone parks in a way that blocks you, they will know when you plan to be back.  Also others can call to ask you to move your car when they are blocked in.  Food for thought.

You can't park your car and trailer on the Washington Ave. as it would cause too much congestion.  Also parking on Shore drive makes it hard for those trying to park at the beach.

Slips

We have a wait list for slips that is now automated and prioritizes by first come and boat size.  Use the button at the top of the blog to request a spot on the wait list.

Slip assignments or reassignments are made in the following order: 

1. Currently leasing a slip, fully paid and in no violation of Rules

2. Slip holder who must be moved due to construction or due to other changes

3. Slip holders who are over- or under-slipped, i.e., the slip size is too large or is inadequate for the boat

4. Slip holders desiring relocation

5. Waiting list (entered via the Slip Request form)

6. Those with a slip that has not been fully paid 

Overnight docking

We have had requests for transient dockage, for friends that come to visit residents by boat, or for residents who bring their boat to Oyster Harbor for the weekend.

Currently we have very limited space for transients but a few spots available are:

• Back side of Fishing Creek Pier along the railing.
• Left side of Booker pier near the bulkhead
• Left side of floating dock at far end of Booker pier (if your boat is under 12')

If you or your friends are anchored in Fishing Creek, you may tie up to the white floating dock at Fishing Creek pier.  This is intended for short term or weekends only.

If you leave a boat longer than a weekend or overnight, your boat may be removed at your expense. If you have a problem, or need to stay for a few days, we recommend that you use the Slip Request button to tell us your contact info and boat registration number so that we don't have it removed.

Please note that any boat tying up to Oyster Harbor property must be legally registered and insured.

Also, we recommend that if you have a dinghy, you should contact Claire (manager@oysterharbor.org) for a boat sticker. 

Watching your wake

The only 'designated' No Wake areas in Oyster Harbor are the anchorage and pier area in Fishing Creek, and the Oyster Creek Canal.  But no matter where you are, you are responsible for your wake.

Wakes damage the grounds behind the walls and causes erosion issues, as well as can damage other boats and cause injury.

It is the law not to operate your vessel at greater than 6 knots within 100 feet of any piers, docks and shoreline.

Please keep an eye our for kayaks and small sailboats. You must slow down for them when you pass.

(A thank you to Tom Cagle of the MD Natural Resources Police for the updated information above.)

Dock electric

There is electric power on all the Oyster Harbor docks.

Pump Outs

Oyster Harbor maintains a pump out for boats.  We modified it to also handle potable holding tanks.  The pump is located on Slip 2 of the Booker pier.  

The State of Maryland paid for the pump out and it is open to any boater.

If it wont turn on, the circuit breaker is located at the wooden platform near the dinghy rack.  PLEASE ENSURE THE POWER BUTTON IS TURNED OFF when you are finished using it.  You can hit the off button more than once, just to be sure.

Dock projects

We are planning a few dock clean up projects now that it is warm.  We are looking for volunteers on June 1 in the morning, before the beach party to replace some of the posts on the floating docks (both Booker and Fishing Creek) and remove rocks and stumps from Fishing Creek, old oyster floats from Booker and general debris from the boat ramp area.

Please contact me to sign up.

Storms and flooding

The occasional summer thunderstorm can cause damage and flooding in Oyster Harbor.  Please ensure your boats are tied up properly each time you use them, as these storms sometimes sneak in when least expected.  

Lost boats

Occasionally boats float away from moorings, beaches, and off floating docks.  Please ensure you get a sticker for your boat from Claire so that we can locate the owner quickly should one go missing.

We have contacts with neighboring communities and we all call one another when we find a lost boat.  With an OHCA sticker, we can recover lost boats much more quickly and with a lot less effort.

Crabbing and fishing off of piers

Its always fun to crab and fish off our our piers.  Sometimes people forget that our piers are shared space, and that privately owned boats there are not for public use.

• Please do not walk on, enter, or use privately owned boats, floating docks, or dock boxes.   
• No overnight crab pots are allowed off of the docks.  
• Please don't leave old hand lines, bait or trash on the docks.
• Please don't throw the rocks from the beach into the creek.  These rocks are necessary to stop erosion, and people, dogs and boats can hit them in the water.

All persons fishing are required to have a proper fishing license.  Oyster Harbor piers are controlled under Maryland fishing/crabbing laws.

We have lots of information on the Oyster Harbor Piers Blog.  If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at anytime.

Please be safe and have a great summer on the water.