Page 68 - MARINAOFTHEYEAR

CHALLENGE FOUR: Halloween Blizzard
Nothing is more “fun” than an unexpected blizzard in October. The Minnesota Twins won the
World Series in 1991. If you watch the celebration parade you’ll see snow flakes. That was the
beginning of one of the worst snow storms in Minnesota history.

The water temperature went from 46 degrees on Friday to 6” of ice on Monday. This does not
happen.

People used to boat on Lake Minnetonka until Mid-November. This storm ended that tradition.
All over the lake there was a panic. Our docks were full! We had over 40 boats freeze in the
water due to this “storm of the century”. In case you’re a movie buff… the movie “The Perfect
Storm” was the collision of two storm fronts in Atlantic Ocean… the Halloween Blizzard was
one of them!

This storm was a nightmare. When the waves came over the dock they immediately iced up.
The weight of this ice build-up was not only treacherous to walk on, it was heavy and nearly
caused the floating dock to sink. Speaking of sinking, as each boat rolled side to side, it too
picked up water which quickly froze. The added weight started to rock the boats unevenly.
Until one finally flipped over and sank.

We started to run the boats at the docks simply to allow the prop wash to prevent the ice build
up around the docks. As soon as we could get a boat out of the lake we did. We hooked a
trailer up to the pick-up truck and chained the pick-up truck to the forklift. The forklift stayed
at the top of the ramp and pulled both the truck and trailer out of the water. The ramp was too
iced up for the truck to do it alone.

The additional problem was that 28” of snow fell in the Twin Cities. There was no where to put
the snow. So placing a boat in the yard required plowing a space clear of snow, and
immediately draining the engine. It was a nightmare.

What did we learn? We artificially end our boating season early. It allows us to allow enough
space at the docks and in the yards that IF a Halloween Blizzard hit again (please no) but IF it
happened, we would be able to handle it better.

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