In the pink
27 October 2017 | Yankee Clipper, Belfast, Maine
Alan
So that's it. Kiviuq is winterised. We left her a few hours ago on the hard-standing at the Front Street Shipyard and in the care of JB Turner and his workforce. The last we saw of her was in the soft autumn sunshine as we looked back over Belfast from the footbridge over the Passagassawakeag River. This was the culmination of many days of quite demanding work, and we felt we were justified in taking satisfaction from a job well done.
Boats winter here in one of four ways; inside heated sheds, inside non-heated sheds, outside on 'the hard', and a few boats winter in the water if the location permits. To winter inside the mast must be removed from a sailing vessel, which is something we try to avoid. To winter on the water, which is possible in Belfast, the boat ideally needs to have almost constant attention in the expected conditions, and if possible someone living on board. So for us the hard-standing was the best option. And for boats wintering like this there is the further option to be shrink-wrapped. Kiviuq will be shrink- wrapped in the near future. Wrapping is not essential, especially for an alloy vessel, but it should help to keep the boat clean and it will certainly improve life for the running rigging.
But what is involved in winterising for outdoor storage here? The first thing to realise is that much of it is driven by the need to protect from low temperatures, and to some extent from strong winds and heavy snowfall. So the first thing is to find anything on board that could freeze and burst its container, and get it off the boat. Fortunately Black Label and Bombay Sapphire are not a problem. Expensive paints, waxes and polishes are also best off the boat. In our case some good friends from North Carolina, who were our neighbours on the dock during the summer, kindly offered to store a box of such items on their boat which is wintering in a heated shed.
Then, before the boat is lifted out of the water, the fresh water tanks are emptied as much as possible and liberal quantities of a non-toxic propylene glycol mixture are poured into the deck fills. This mixture comes in a rather fetching shade of pink. The freshwater system is then de-pressurised, the calorifier (water heater) is by-passed and drained, the water pump is turned on and the taps and shower head opened until 'the pink' is flowing out of everything.
The next task is to drain everywhere that water can lie or collect as much as possible and replace lying water with pink anti-freeze. Such places in Kiviuq are the bilge, the shower sump and the bottom of the chain locker. Then finally, with plenty of pink now in the grey water tank from the tap runs, it is pumped out and more pink added for good measure.
This whole process is more complicated on many other boats that have water-makers, air-conditioners, flushing toilets and generators, none of which grace Kiviuq; for which, and for once, we are truly grateful.
Lastly, as far as anti-freezing is concerned, the pink is run through the engine raw water system after hauling out.
By way of an aside, there is an alternative to the pink propylene glycol mixture for anti-freezing; namely cheap vodka. And indeed we heard that several cases of vodka arrived at the yard for another boat while we were working on Kiviuq. Proponents of this method allege that it tastes better than 'the pink' in the early days after recommissioning following the winter. I imagine if one likes vodka it probably does.
But anti-freezing isn't everything of course. The sails are removed and sent for washing and valeting, our liferaft was taken off for servicing, the outboard engine was taken off for servicing and winter storage inside, and the engine start batteries were removed for observation and occasional charging over the winter. The large domestic batteries are different beasts, with very low self-discharge rates, that are expected to do well over the winter with input from the wind turbine.
And finally, arrangements were made for some repair and maintenance work to be done in our absence. This includes a repair to the jib furler foil, fitting of a new radome mount and a new mast boot.
All in all we leave Belfast tomorrow feeling that we have done our best for Kiviuq. She has been our home for much of the past sixteen months and has shared our sailing adventures as the three of us have made our way from Kip on the Clyde Estuary in Scotland to Belfast, Maine in the USA via Ireland, the Madeiras, the Canaries, the eastern Caribbean and Bermuda. We look forward to joining her again in May next year.