With striper season in full swing, please be prepared during extreme cold.

Cold Weather Can Be Lethal. Learn How to Equip Your Boat and Crew.
By Capt. Art Pine
Updated January 11, 2010
For the first few years that I owned my boat, my crew and I used to sail every weekend – right through the chilly winter. We were eager to get out on the water, and being the only boat in sight was exciting, and, well, sort of macho.

Looking back over those days when we shivered in the face of winter winds and watched the snowflakes cover the weather-deck, I realize that the best word to describe our winter boating was more like stupid.

Sure, we wore long-johns and extra sweaters, and we added parkas and thick scarves to our underway wardrobe. But we didn't have the proper anti-exposure suits or other cold-weather gear. And we knew nothing about cold-weather boating. Had anyone gone over the side, we would have been in real trouble.

To be sure, fewer boaters actually go out when the weather and the water turn chilly. In cooler climes, most boaters haul out their vessels by Labor Day – or winterize them and install bubblers in their slips to prevent ice from forming around their hulls when the temperature plunges.


WEST MARINE
This suit is like a combination one-man life raft and diver’s wetsuit. Designed for commercial and recreational offshore use under the most severe conditions, it provides extended hypothermia protection during immersion in dangerously cold water.
Yet for those who do venture out, cold weather is one of the biggest dangers a recreational boater can face. If you or your crew fall in – either by slipping overboard or capsizing – your body can go into shock, it will be harder to stay afloat and you can easily drown. You also can get hypothermia, which can leave you unconscious.

"When the air temperature gets lower, there's an extraordinary amount of additional risk," says Lieutenant-Commander Rob Wyman of the Coast Guard's Atlantic Area command in Portsmouth, Virginia. "Your ability to survive decreases significantly. Seconds and minutes can make a big difference. You really need to be prepared."

Wyman says the most prudent course for recreational boaters is not to go out at all during the cold-weather season. "If you are going to be on the waterways, you need to be absolutely prepared," he says. That means wearing a special cold-weather survival suit, making sure your boat is properly equipped, and letting people know where you're going.

HYPOTHERMIA: THE BIG RISK

Cold-weather experts say the big danger in winter boating is the risk of hypothermia. Being in cold water for even a short time without protective clothing lowers a person's core body temperature and impairs his or her ability to think, act and survive. Even the smallest physical exertion heightens the heat loss.

"The colder the water is, the more likely a boating accident is to result in death," says Dr. Gordon Giesbrecht, a cold-water-boating expert at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg who heads an Internet-based course called Cold Water Boot Camp. "Cold water impairs your ability to remain afloat," he says.

Moreover, with fewer boats on the water in winter, the prospect that you'll be spotted or rescued very soon is far smaller than in summer months, Giesbrecht says. While actual accident rates go down in the winter, the percentage of accidents that result in death inevitably rises.

When body temperature falls much below 96 degrees, Coast Guard manuals say, a person starts shivering uncontrollably and becomes less able to perform simple tasks. At 95 degrees, the shivering becomes violent, and the person has difficulty speaking. Movements are sluggish, and amnesia begins.

At 90 degrees, the muscles turn rigid. Movements are erratic. At 85 degrees, the person becomes irrational and falls into a stupor. Pulse and respiration slow. At 80 degrees, reflexes stop, the heartbeat is erratic and the victim loses consciousness. Below 78 degrees comes heart failure, internal bleeding and death.

The best treatment for hypothermia, the Coast Guard says, is to get the person out of the water, carefully remove clothing and emergency gear and cover him or her with a blanket. If the victim isn't breathing, perform cardio-pulmonary-resuscitation, or CPR. Don't handle the person roughly. Don't administer food or drink.

Note: Cold-water-boating experts advise that you stay away from alcohol when you're out on the water. Not only does it impair your judgment, but it hastens the onset of hypothermia.

DEATH BY DROWNING

The University of Manitoba's Giesbrecht asserts that hypothermia isn't usually what kills people who have fallen into icy water. Most die from drowning, which results from an initial cold shock that leads to hyperventilation and incapacitation. By the time hypothermia sets in, he says, the person usually has drowned.

As Giesbrecht describes it, the cold shock hits the victim immediately, bringing on a deep and sudden gasp that produces up to 1000 percent more pressure than normal breathing. The airway becomes blocked and, although the shock lasts only a minute, the risk of drowning is high.


What qualifies as cold water? The Coast Guard’s definition is whenever the water temperature falls below 60 degrees Fahrenheit.
The second phase, cold incapacitation, continues for about 10 minutes, but quickly leaves the victim without effective use of his fingers, arms and legs. In either of these phases, wearing a life-jacket is critically important, he says. It helps keep you afloat and keep your airway open so you don't drown.

Hypothermia sets in from one hour to 35 hours later, depending upon the temperature of the water, the weight and sex of the victim and how much energy the person has spent just flailing around. Giesbrecht calls it the 1-10-1 formula: one minute to get your breathing under control; 10 minutes of meaningful movement; and one hour or more until you become unconscious due to hypothermia.

HOW COLD IS COLD?

What qualifies as cold water? The Coast Guard's definition is whenever the water temperature falls below 60 degrees Fahrenheit. When that happens, the service requires its small-boat crews to wear anti-exposure coveralls, which look a little like a padded flight-suit. They're warm and have their own flotation.

When either the water temperature or the air temperature falls below 50 degrees, the Coast Guard requires its small-boat crews to wear drysuits – those puffy orange-and-black protective suits that make you look a little like the Pillsbury Doughboy.

Neither is cheap, and both require regular maintenance. The coveralls can cost between $260 and $350 apiece, and drysuits can run from $900 up – far more than most boaters want to spend for each of their crew members or passengers. You'd also need to buy proper gloves, headgear and boots.

If you don't want to buy such equipment – and most boaters most likely won't – the least you can do is practice layering. That means wearing heavy long-johns or other specially designed cold-weather underwear and then putting on progressively thicker fleece garments. On top of all that should be a windbreaker.

You'll also want to consider equipping your life-jackets with a full array of emergency devices, from whistles and strobe lights to signal mirrors and personal locator beacons to help rescuers find you more quickly, before hypothermia sets in. If you do fall in, stay with your boat so rescue crew can spot you more easily.

Your boat should carry life-jackets for everyone, an emergency life-ring, a throw-bag, a marine VHF radio and a personal locator beacon for the boat. If the vessel has a lot of freeboard, you'll need to help people in the water climb aboard. If you don't have a boarding ladder, a line with a loop at one end can serve as a step, or there are several commercial products available.

Finally, in cold weather more than ever, you need to file a "float plan" – a description of your vessel; a list of the captain, crew and passengers with contact information; and information about your intended route and the time you expect to return. Give it to someone in your family who will be diligent in keeping track of you, or file it with one of the professional services that specialize in float plans.


Cold-weather experts say the big danger in winter boating is the risk of hypothermia. Being in cold water for even a short time without protective clothing lowers a person’s core body temperature and impairs his or her ability to think, act and survive.
GET YOUR BOAT READY

Remember, too, that your boat faces new dangers when the weather is cold.

Ice can form quickly on your stanchions, grab-rails and weather deck, making it difficult for you to get around. Ice can build up in the bilges and wreak havoc in rough water, impairing your boat's stability. Your anchor can freeze to the deck, making it more difficult to keep your boat from hitting the rocks if the engine dies.

It goes without saying that fiberglass hulls aren't suitable for ice-breaking, even if the ice is paper-thin. At the least, you'll risk getting nicks and scratches in the hull. In thicker ice, you can easily poke a hole in your hull, thrusting you into cold water with little time to prepare for it.

Danny Graves, a boatswain's mate first-class at the U.S. Coast Guard Station on the Saginaw River in Michigan, notes that frequently the think layer of ice that you may see is only a small portion of what's actually there. The Titanic ran into that problem – literally – and sank. Remember that cliché about the "tip of the iceberg."

How do you find out how cold the water is? You can equip your boat with a water thermometer that reads out on your chartplotter or other instruments on your dash (but avoid taking the temperature right next to your slip, where it's apt to be warmer). You can also use an Internet search-engine to find a website that provides real-time water temperatures in your area.

I wish I had known more of this stuff when I bought my boat – I might not have gone out during those cold, snowy days. Thinking about the risks that we took then (if you'll pardon the expression) gives me the chills.

Manitoba's Giesbrecht says cold weather itself isn't really the big danger for boaters; it's more that they too often are not properly prepared, with wearing survival suits, drysuits and other equipment. The risks are higher when the weather turns cold, and the best way to help reduce them is to equip yourself and your boat properly.