I laid up late this year: a week before Christmas in fact. The boat was covered in ice and snow and the chill north-easterly wind had blown down icicles from the rig. I bucketed salt water over the deck before moving off to put her in the travel hoist. But even after an hour of dousing, the deck was not clear of ice. So cold was the sea-water and the air temperature that the ice refused to melt. I never fully cleared the boat of ice before setting off.

The days being so short I was also caught by tight weather and tide windows: I had to save some daylight to clean her off.

Also I was late in taking sail down: I don’t like unbending the sails while still wet and we have had prcious little dry weather for weeks.

Having sidded through black ice in the car to get to the boatyard I then found the travel hoist was frozen to the ground and had to return for a second day. Then, once in the hoist, the freeze came back and it was too treacherous to manouvre the travel hoist through the skid-pan boatyard. So she sat in the hoist for several days before being transferred to a cradle.

All in all laying up after November is a bad idea.