Ever freeze and split one of pearson fiberglass sink tubes?

[Ric in Richmond]

I am wondering about the wisdom of leaving a boat with Pearsons famous fiberglass sink drain tubes in the water over winter.

My Marina has bubblers and here in Virginia it is not usually mandatory to haul a boat. I was planning on doing it in the spring for a week to attend to bottom paint, thru hulls etc.

Then I got wondering about the sink drains. Theoretically you could freeze one of those solid, split it and sink the boat? Anyone know if this is possible or ever happen before? Or am I just paranoid?

Ric

[Tim]

Possible? Absolutely.

Likely in Virginia? Probably not likely.

Has it happened before? Well, I know that these tubes have been damaged in some boats before, causing leaks or sinkings. I can't point directly to an example of freeze-related damage of this type, specifically.

Does your area get hard freezes that truly freeze the sea water? Since the drains are located a foot or more below the waterline, they are thereby insulated, to an extent, from the ambient air temperatures above. If you got hard seawater freezes that extended beyond a slushy surface layer, then it might be more of a concern.

I'm sure there are boats that winter over in the water in Maine that have this type of underwater fitting, or similar. That doesn't mean it's immune from damage, of course, but at the same time it's not like the first cold day (or even stretch of cold weather) is going to freeze the small amount of sea water that's inside the tube. With the bubblers preventing formation of ice around the boat, I would suspect that no ice would form within the tubes, either.

At least that's how I see it, for what it's worth!

[catamount]

If it is a sink drain, could you possibly have some residual fresh water sitting on top of the salt water in the tube? If so, that might freeze even when the salt water doesn't. Couldn't hurt to flush some salt water (or an environmentally benign antifreeze) down your drain(s).

I have read that in Maryland, it is not unheard of for a boat to sink from cockpit drain hoses that have split due to freezing of the freshwater that has collected in them. I'm not sure what the solution to this is, as closing off your cockpit drain seacocks or putting stoppers in your cockpit drains means your cockpit will fill up with snow and rain... I suppose that if you did plug your drains, you could set up a submersible pump in the cockpit to keep it pumped out, or alternatively put a tent over the cockpit to keep the rain and snow out, or just place a small electric heater in the boat to keep the insides from freezing (i.e., a strategically placed incandescent light bulb or two might do it; this assumes you're tied to a dock with shore power).

Although my Peterson doesn't have any fiberglass drain tubes like your Pearsons, I'm planning to keep my boat in the water through the winter, in Maryland, so this issue is something that I'm thinking about...

Tim A.