Why can't boats travel in the winter?

Question

Why can't boats travel in the winter?

Answer 1

Boats CAN travel in winter.  There are alot of owners that insure the boats and they have a clause in the contract policy that will not allow them to use the boats for 3 or 4 months out of the year, or during the winter months.  Very often the owners will have the boats hauled out during the months they can not use them.

Answer 2

why not?. no reason why they cant,some people wont use their boat in the winter time and dry dock them,some live on them all year round.

Answer 3

Whoever said they can't. They do it all the time on the Chesapeake.

However, what kind of boats, what kind of weather, water, ice, etc.

Oyster boats fish for oysters all winter long on the Chesapeake, as long as they are mot iced in.Pleasure boaters are out as long as the weather holds(storm warning flags are not starched) and the catch is legal.

Problem is with fiberglass hulls and sheet ice. It acts like a razor on the hull and slashes it open. There were two fishermen drowned within a few feet of shore when sheet ice cut their boat open and it sank with them. They were just out of reach and could not be saved.

You just have to pay close attention to small boat warnings. They mean what they say and the Chesapeake can be very rough. Lots of boats are lost when idiots go out when the warnings are up.

Actually sail boats do better in the winter than power boats. Thay go out when the power boats have to come in.

Answer 4

If you have a bubble system, ( a system that keeps the ice aroun your boat melted while it`s in a marina), you can live on it in a marina.. Also if you had shore power...it`s possible. But to travel on Lake Ontario, ( in Canada), it would be a feat in itself. Sometimes the ice can get really thick. You`d have to make a path for yourself and travel it frequently.

Answer 5

?? Gee, that's news to me !!

I've sailed Alaska, Canada, and Washington's coast from Adak to Seattle in the dead of winter in a 40 foot sailboat.  I lived aboard the boat for 2 more weeks before sailing it down to the buyer in San Francisco.

I also spent a GLORIOUS 4 months off the Soviet Coast in the Bering Straits in the depth of winter aboard a US Navy Frigate.  Nice to have seat-belts on your rack (bed).

Answer 6

I have kayaked at 20 F below zero in Maine on the coast. I have kayak on the Penobscot river in a snow storm. I sail year round on the Chesapeake Bay.

The concerns you should have is what happens if you go in the water.

Answer 7

we sail in "winter" every year. Of course, in Southern California the temperatures are usually higher than the rest of the country, the wind blows more and there's no ice.

Answer 8

Well, here in my neck of the woods we have ice.

About three feet thick. We drive on it, and fish thru it.

That is the number one reason I take my boats out of the water in the winter.