What is it called when someone refers to an object, moment in time, etc. as a he or she, designating its gender? This is often used when talking about cars or boats. Today I heard, "Someday this year he has to come," which referred to when the snow was gonna fall. I tried to explain this to a foreign friend and got stumped.

Well, it is to do with the English grammar, or rather lack of it. People do not understand the classification of nouns: feminine, masculine and neutral. A car or a boat is neutral, therefore it is an "it". Simple, really!