Even at my great age now, I still go kayaking on Loch Fyne. Dinghy sailing my Laser isn’t really an option now at 76. Due to the coldness of the water and unstable winds that can whirl off the hills combined with my age. The usual batch of winter climbers who regularly visit Scotland to test their metal run into trouble. It’s a bit different here than if you live further south.
Farther north winter sailing that isn’t quite as simple. Winds regularly go over force 10, with a much higher wind chill factor. Each fall, winter, or spring in Scotland can be a wild season with quite a few boats blown ashore (see photos 1 & 2). These two extreme storms, neither at spring tides, thank goodness, made me question how many sailors stay afloat all winter. Whether tied up alongside or moored to a buoy.
We are constantly bombarded by our weather gods with information that wind strengths are likely to worsen as our earth’s temperature rises. Maybe UK boat owners in very exposed places may need to consider lifting out for a few months. But if you do decide to keep your boat in the water all year round, then several factors might need to be taken into consideration:
- Have you chosen a good, sheltered spot (marina, river, or bay) where other yachts have overwintered safely before?
- Do you live near enough so you or someone else can regularly check on the boat after a big winter gale?
- Have you left ‘the love of your life’ tied up sensibly with sound warps and good fenders or on a mooring buoy that has been well checked (ground tackle and riser etc.).
A pal of mine quietly keeps his beautiful but rather geriatric classic yacht on swinging mooring in NW Scotland, quite close to Cape Wraith. He doesn’t want to lift out each year because water cushions her old wooden hull and keeps her pickled, preventing rot. She’s Vertue No. 2! Winds where he lives regularly peak at record-breaking strengths compared to southern Britain, anemometer-destroying. He mentioned to me that this certainly keeps him awake at nights when the wind is shrieking. He pins hopes on bulletproof ground tackle in a well-sheltered bay. As well as making sure that other boats around can’t blow down on him. Two of the dozen in the bay went adrift in the gales due to corroded shackles and a chafed riser. (see diagrams 1 and 2).
His only consolation being that many boats get damaged whilst ashore, as well as afloat. And he’s not wrong there either, as several vicious winter gales in the Clyde have damaged many boats in the marinas here.
Some boats run into problems, but that’s the Fate of those weather God’s… but you can try and mitigate things. With just some common sense…
