Winterizing a Wave

As much as I hate to think about it, winter is approaching. What do other people in cold weather states do with their Waves when the lake freezes and the frigid winds howl? Should I drop the mast? Remove the rudders and/or trampoline? Drain plugs in or out? Tarp the hulls? Store the whole thing indoors or leave it out? Or should I keep it rigged and use it as an ice boat? Any other suggestions?

Other suggestions?

I left the mast up on my H-17 one winter, then strung Christmas lights on it. I had the tallest "tree" in the neighborhood.

If it were my boat and I didn't have indoor storage (and I don't), this is what I'd do.
- Drain any water in the hulls.
- Remove mast and store in garage.
- Ditto with rudders.
- Ditto with main sheet blocks.
- Store sail under bed.
- Put trailer axle on blocks.
- Maybe remove wheels and put in garage.
- Elevate front of trailer (so water runs off boat).
- Cover boat with tarp.

If you're prone to snow, I'd make sure it doesn't build up on the boat.

Come Spring - reverse the order, check that the mast tang shackle is tight and snug up the tramp lacing.

Brian C

Thanks for the advice!

So, as long as there's no water in the hulls, it won't mind sub-zero temperatures? And it's okay to leave the tramp on (as long as it's tarped)? But you think I should loosen the laces?

I don't have a trailer for it. It's just sitting on the ground, on a long skinny point at the sailing club. After I take the mast & rudders off, I may just leave it out there, tied down in front and back, and hope the level of the reservoir doesn't rise too far!

I know sometimes people use kayaks as sleds; has anyone ever tried a Wave as an iceboat? It would be fun to get out there with the DNs. Not sure about steering though...

Sailing on ice sounds like a blast. You can steer with your body weight and sail trim.

My pleasure.



Nope... But lacing usually needs tightening every so often. And the Spring commisioning is a good time to do that kind of maintenance.



That's more information.

Yes, definitely tie the boat down. But pull it as far up as you can from the water's edge with a bow up angle if you can. And if the possibility of water high enough to float it is real, then tie a line to the front cross bar at the mast step and to something solid up the hill - a mooring line if you will. Because the Wave probably has enough bouyancy to pop loose any kind of tie down you use.

Brian C

I've seen the lake rise a few feet, but some other people leave their cats out there on the point all winter. (You can even see them on Google Earth and Windows Live Local, if you zoom in on the Indianapolis Sailing Club. Those aerial photos are always taken in the winter, so the leaves are off the trees.) I'll pull my Wave up the hill a bit and tie it to a tree, just to be safe. Right now, it's tied to a dog stake in front and a 3" tree root in back, but it's fairly close to the shore.

As for the drain plugs, should I pull them out to keep the hulls from compressing, or leave them in to keep water and critters out? Or are the hulls really that air-tight that it even matters?

Wow! That's a bunch of slips for such a small body of water. But I can see the cats on the point.

Because of the shape of the stern on the Wave, I'd probably leave the plugs in. It looks possible for water to get into the hulls in a rainstorm because there's no deck lip like on the 16. Plus the transom is sloped the wrong way, and plastic boats don't need to breath.

Brian C

The long skinny point with the large parking lot is the sailing club. The commercial marina with a thousand slips is for all the power boats we have to share the lake with. Those winter photos don't show how active our club is during the summer, just how bleak it is in the winter.

Can the extreme cold damage the hulls at all? I plan on leaving the hulls in a non-heated garage all winter.

Being in Texas, I don't have a lot of experience with the kind of cold you're talking about. At certain temperatures, everything is brittle. I'm thinking that as long as you're not stressing or dropping heavy objects on the hulls during that time, you should be OK.

But I repeat, I'm in Texas and don't know for sure.

Brian C

I have left my Getaway outside all winter in Ontario every year since 2003, and things are fine. I remove the lines, rigging, basically everything that I can, and I unlace the tramps and roll them around the central crossbar. I secure the rolled tramps around the bar with bungees. Oh, and I leave the hull plugs slightly open.

My Getaway is stored about 100 feet from the beach (on Lake St. Claire), sitting on 2x4's to keep the hulls off the grass, but otherwise lying flat. This leaves the boat exposed to sun, snow, ice, wind, and painfully low temperatures. Four winters and so far, no problems.

Mark