Cruising when the water is frozen

[sueb]

We used to love it when a boat came past, breaking the ice for us.

[Dav and Pen]

We spent a Christmas and New Year on our barge near Antwerp one year and the canal froze over. Our neighbor who moored behind us was really worried about ice sheets damaging his Ttjalk which was pretty old once the commercials started up. We were moored in a laybye between 2 locks and the barges were 500 tonners carrying sand a bit further up the canal and then back empty every day. Jean got hold of a lot of car wheels complete with tyres and hung them all down the side after breaking the ice. The barges certainly broke the ice but the power from the prop broke up the sheets into small pieces which all froze at night. Anyway Jeans boats is still floating as in our 100 year old barge.

 

[junior]

9 hours ago, Andrew C said:

I'm currently on the Llangollen and heading towards the Shropshire Union Canal and hopefully Chester before Christmas. Having only begun as a liveaboard this April, I've not encountered iced over canals before until seeing the arm at Ellesmere frozen. Is there a news source to go to to check if the Shroppie, (or any other canal) is navigable when temperatures drop below 0, or can any boaters around the area confirm the canal state please? I'm not keen on passing through Hurlesdon locks to find myself stranded🙁

Fuel Boat Bargus is heading to Chester later this week and will be breaking the ice. If you can get down Hurleston you can follow him down after he's broken the ice.

[Ex Brummie]

8 hours ago, Andrew C said:

Interesting you say that Goliath. Do you know if the fuel boats have ice breaking design features? I ask because Chamberlains Fuel boats are now making deliveries by van on the Shroppie and yet Four Counties are still moving on the canal and were even discussing if I could get to Hurlesdon by Tuesday lunchtime to buy supplies. This is exactly why I began to question if the canal was that bad, or it was just on some arms or marinas where it was too frozen. 

I would think that the combination of aheavy boat and an engine and prop with some guts helps through the sort of ice we have at the moment. Maybe Chamberlains are using a van so that the operator doesn't have to stand in the cold for hours.

[matty40s]

5 minutes ago, Ex Brummie said:

I would think that the combination of aheavy boat and an engine and prop with some guts helps through the sort of ice we have at the moment. Maybe Chamberlains are using a van so that the operator doesn't have to stand in the cold for hours.

The Chamberlains have only recently replaced a load of steel on one of the boats, perhaps Paddy is trying to look after 'em.

[Andrew C]

32 minutes ago, Ex Brummie said:

I would think that the combination of aheavy boat and an engine and prop with some guts helps through the sort of ice we have at the moment. Maybe Chamberlains are using a van so that the operator doesn't have to stand in the cold for hours.

He did message, to save having to plough through all the ice, they've taken the decision to deliver by van instead, so probably trying to avoid slow cold progress and save the boat from wear. 

[Andrew C]

42 minutes ago, junior said:

Fuel Boat Bargus is heading to Chester later this week and will be breaking the ice. If you can get down Hurleston you can follow him down after he's broken the ice.

My wife actually suggested that but I figured we'd have to keep stopping while deliveries were being made and appear as cheap detectives, badly shadowing a suspect 🤣

[Bee]

7 hours ago, Paul C said:

 

Could you see how an alternate viewpoint might say, that a boat with a "soft plank on the waterline" shouldn't really be on the canals because it may be perceived as unseaworthy? And that the ice is "the straw that broke the camel's back" in terms of the event which did the damage to finally overwhelm and sink the thing?

Well I was using it as an illustration of the dangers of ice but the reality of boating 50 years ago was that there were quite a lot of old wooden boats about, most of them were less than perfect and the new steel boatbuilding industry was in its infancy. 

[furnessvale]

21 minutes ago, Andrew C said:

My wife actually suggested that but I figured we'd have to keep stopping while deliveries were being made and appear as cheap detectives, badly shadowing a suspect 🤣

Exactly what happens!  When out with ALTON in the ice I would often collect a tail but they would have to wait when I made a delivery.  On more than one occasion I stopped mid stream for a brew and a bite to eat with a queue waiting patiently behind.  On one occasion I gave up and turned back which left a couple of boats stranded at a winding hole!

[Allan(nb Albert)]

11 hours ago, Tonka said:

Surely you would have to be pushing the ice onto their paintwork to do damage.

Minus 9 here overnight in Betws-y-Coed 

Minus 7 at the Gwydyr Hotel at Betws-y-Coed last night according to member of staff. Not sure if that was inside or outside ...

[roland elsdon]

13 hours ago, IanD said:

If you're just going straight ahead into ice the only thing that breaks it is the wedge action of the bows and hull, the force on the ice is edge on where it's quite strong. If you rock the boat from side to side then this helps break up the ice by flexing it up and down, ice is brittle.

 

Doing a *lot* of ice-breaking can cause some damage to your own boat, see my tale about what happened to Baron after ice-breaking all the way from Cosgrove to London in 1985... 😞

Yep that was a bad year. On our trip back from little venice following Colonel, the cross straps froze, and snapped at alperton. Got the boats in at cowley in the dark. One of the local ijits complained we were moored in the winding hole .( pitch black and ab out -6). 

[Oddjob]

21 hours ago, MtB said:

 

An alternative fact, made up by snowflake boating newbies.

 

 

 

Agree I had to move when water frozen “couldn’t wait it out” as needed services and as a cc moving when water frozen fact of life. Mind you extra slow past plastic and wooden boats. 
also EXTRA care when getting on or off and round locks. 
Another point if you do go in stand up and take off heavy coat and woolly stuff as they are heavy then it’s a bit easier to climb out then into a warm shower fully dressed and strip off in the shower. Came to this idea the hard way lol not dead winter but water was cold that was for sure. 

[Midnight]

21 hours ago, Feeby100 said:

Plus it will damage you blacking or 2 pack protection and other you pass so sit it out 

My experience suggests it won't damage two-pack blacking but will annoy moored boaters

[Feeby100]

Agreed it doesn’t about it that’s the way it is just need to be a bit considerate really message in emergency the Tupac affection can get stretched but it’s only a thin layer of resin and it’s not easy to say really 

[Midnight]

17 hours ago, Tam & Di said:

White Heather - quite a while before we owned it in the 70s. It's still around so the ice didn't do it irreperable harm  😁

 

 

Now owned by a fellow boat club member and moored at Battyeford. What a beauty!

 

 

15 minutes ago, Feeby100 said:

Agreed it doesn’t about it that’s the way it is just need to be a bit considerate really message in emergency the Tupac affection can get stretched but it’s only a thin layer of resin and it’s not easy to say really 

 

Years ago I broke ice from Kildwick to Leeds. No damage at all to the two-pack and no complaining boaters back then. I think moaning about boats moving through ice is a recent thing, part the current woke culture. 

Edited December 13, 2022 by Midnight

[Alan de Enfield]

11 minutes ago, Midnight said:

I think moaning about boats moving through ice is a recent thing, part the current woke culture. 

 

Corrected that for you !

[Sea Dog]

17 minutes ago, Midnight said:

 

Now owned by a fellow boat club member and moored at Battyeford. What a beauty!

 

 

 

Years ago I broke ice from Kildwick to Leeds. No damage at all to the two-pack and no complaining boaters back then. I think moaning about boats moving through ice is a recent thing, part the current woke culture. 

I wonder if it's related to the cost of hauling out and blacking?

[Midnight]

20 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

Corrected that for you !

 

Thank you - bang on!

 

15 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

I wonder if it's related to the cost of hauling out and blacking?

The Club has it's own dry dock although it will be interesting to see if White Heather can make it over the cill in summer levels.

[Sea Dog]

Just now, Midnight said:

 

Thank you - bang on!

 

The Club has it's own dry dock although it will be interesting to see if White Heather can make it over the cill in summer levels.

I was thinking about why folk moan about icebreakers passing. Your own dry dock is quite an asset though, eh! 

[Midnight]

27 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

I was thinking about why folk moan about icebreakers passing. Your own dry dock is quite an asset though, eh! 

Oh sorry, people moan because we have generally become a self-entitled, intolerant society and it contagious. 

[cuthound]

23 hours ago, Hudds Lad said:

I’d be interested in CRT’s rules (not suggestions) on moving in ice, i’ve recently seen some boaters with a live cam hurl vitriol and abuse at a couple of shareboats for moving back towards their marinas on Friday through the ice and subsequently report them to the share company and CRT. Unsure what they think the outcome will be, but it was plain they were primed to be angry at anyone passing.

 

Must be a recent thing. In the 22 years I had shareboats I had to break ice to get back to base on a number of occasions and never got shouted at. indeed boats often pulled out behind me to take advantage of the channel I had cleared.

 

In the nine years I have owned a boat it has been on a linear mooring which has frozen over most years for a day or three and suffered no damage from passing boats.

 

Strangely this year the cut has now been frozen for 5 days and not a single boat has gone passed. In other years at least one boat a day has broken ice.

Edited December 13, 2022 by cuthound
Clarification

[matty40s]

We have had boats past every day except for today, it was -5c last night and is still below freezing now so no melt

[PD1964]

I don’t know if anyone can advise, anyone know the state of the T&M from Lock 1 Derwent Mouth Lock to Stensen Marina, any info on the Ice would be appreciated, as moving a boat from Redhill to Stensen in a day or two. Thanks. 

[matty40s]

Worst section for ice there will be above Swarkestone between bridges 15 and 18 as it is quite protected by high hedges on the Southern side. I almost gave up there moving a boat in 2015, before that from Shardlow hadnt been too thick.

[Jim Riley]

4 hours ago, Midnight said:

Oh sorry, people moan because we have generally become a self-entitled, intolerant society and it contagious. 

It's the cold weather, encourages snowflakes.