Winter storage question

Hi all. It's been a great year of sailing on Long Island. Regarding winter storage, I was reading other threads that made reference to drying out the inside of the hull with a hose and air pump in the rear drain during storage.

My Laser is in excellent condition and from 1984. When I take it out of the water there is never any water to drain out of the hull. If this is the case, is it still possible that there is humidity in the hull? There is no port access on my Laser.

Since this is my first year storing a Laser, I would appreciate any general winter storing advice you may have. Thanks!
JB
 
Depends upon where and how you store your boat... condensation can repeatedly occur inside the hull and lead to problems. Best to install inspection ports fore and aft, then keep the hatch covers off during storage. I always stored my Laser & Minifish on homemade racks or cradles, built so the boats could be stored up on their rails against the side of my house. Each rack or cradle was constructed so it offered full support along the rail. Padded as well where the rail rested, no chipped-up paint that way. As soon as each boat was rinsed and set in her cradle, I'd remove the hatch covers from the ports so air could freely flow through the hull. Not a bad system, and it freed up space in my concrete slab driveway. Just my $.02 on the subject, a simple wooden cradle which conforms to your hull can be built in an hour or two, less time if you're a good carpenter. If you already have a trailer and the room to park it somewhere on your property, that'll work too, ya just don't want any rain entering the open inspection ports. Port installation is rather simple, I'm sure there are threads or posts on the topic here at this website. I like the clear hatch covers myself, might as well be able to check for problems at a glance while under way... :cool:
 
Sound advise. It also depends on where you store the boat: carport, (heated) garage, basement etc.

My son's boat is always stored in a greenhouse at a plant nursery during the winter. Last year, we put it on transport to Portugal (Algarve) in December so that he could fly there for training weeks. Ultimately, the boat returned in March. When stored in Holland, the trailer and boat are then stored between plants that will not survive the winter when outside. Having said that, current winters are getting warmer every year (typically, you'll see that this year...). Cold weather is replaced with wet weather!

I was the person who wrote about the airflow system for the boat. The lady telling that to me was from the SE part of the USA. Perhaps climate has a lot to do with that as well.

A side note: personally, I would not start cutting into a boat for the installation of inspection ports when you don't need them.

Menno
 
Be very careful if you decide to apply any source of air or vacuum to the inside of the hull. Even 1 psi can result in several thousand pounds of force between the hull and deck.
 

Back
Top