Bubble Baths for Boats

The wind in the sails had grown too raw by last week for most U.S. salts, and the annual effort of putting up the boats for winter was nearly completed. The usual technique is to haul them out, secure them on cradles and cover them with canvas. The method is timehonored, but in many ways unsatisfactory. In the first Place, wooden hulls tend to "come and go"' that is, the timbers shrink in the dry winter air, expand when put back in the water. As a result, hulls can warp, fittings are sometimes sheared. Secondly, the cradle in which a boat rests may not fit properly and thet boat will tend to "hog," that is, sag at both bow and stem.

Most of these problems are sidestepped by a new method: putting the boat in a bubble bath for the winter. Marina owners have found that a simple 1/2-h.p. air compressor, humming away throughout the cold months, can be used to pump air through perforated tubing that lies on the bottom of the harbor. The resulting bubbles then rise and carry with them the relatively warmer water on the bottom--the same lower strata of water that keep fish alive through the winter. Thus constantly replenished by water from below, the surface is kept above the freezing point, even when the ice nearby is seven inches thick The system, which had been tried experimentally by the Navy, was first used commercially as far back as 1958 by the Harbor Marine Center in Cos Cob, Conn., initially just to keep ice from accumulating around the dock pilings. By chance, a few boats were left in the water and survived the winter in excellent condition.

Bubble baths are so simple that one can even be installed for a lone boat at a private dock (cost: $250). But it is most popular in marinas. This winter the Cos Cob boatyard will keep 80 boats in the water, and Manager Michael Brown expects the number to double again in 1967-68. The one Chicago marina to try it is full to capacity. Ted Fischer, president of the Northport Marina on Long Island installed a bubble system two years ago, now has 75 boats lined up to float until spring.

Boat owners like the new system, which costs about $4.50 per ft. v. $5 to $6 per ft. for hauling. East Coast and Midwest marina owners see it as a way to add to their storage capacity. Happiest of all are the skippers, who need only take off the tarpaulins to take their undrydocked loves out for a run on a rare mild January day.

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