Icebergs

[system 4-50]

Before I collected my Sailaway at the start of the year, I visited Whilton Marina, and whilst there I saw a nb come in, dislodging huge sheets of thick ice towards neighbouring boats.

I have worried about my boat since.

What can I do to protect my precious blacking?

My mooring appears to be quite exposed judging by the damage done to one of my nappy pins by passing traffic.

[casper ghost]

I'd find something else to worry about..

[saltysplash]

 

What can I do to protect my precious blacking?

My mooring appears to be quite exposed judging by the damage done to one of my nappy pins by passing traffic.

 

put it on hard standing during the winter

 

or you could hang wooden planks down the sides along the water line to act as a barrier to icebergs

[Paul Evans]

Start by repating after me:

 

Blacking is not precious.

Blacking is made to wear out.

Blacking is not precious.

Blacking is made to wear......

 

The short answer is very little unless you want to crane your boat out of the water. Blacking is there to provide a measure of protection for the hull and as such has to be seen as a consumable not a fixed asset. Take heart from the facts that, generally, we have warm, wet winters not cold dry ones (just to prove there's nothing wrong with my long term memory, I learned that for O Level Geography) and that global warming is on its way.

Edited September 7, 2010 by Paul Evans

[Speedwheel]

^ What they said.

 

It will get damaged and worn. That is what it is there for. Best learn that and get over it.

Edited September 7, 2010 by Speedwheel

[MtB]

Before I collected my Sailaway at the start of the year, I visited Whilton Marina, and whilst there I saw a nb come in, dislodging huge sheets of thick ice towards neighbouring boats.

I have worried about my boat since.

What can I do to protect my precious blacking?

My mooring appears to be quite exposed judging by the damage done to one of my nappy pins by passing traffic.

 

 

 

Blimey are you the bloke in the status boat whom I bumped ever so slightly coming out of Hilmorton top lock the other day who went absolutely MENTAL and ranted and raved about how he would sue me into oblivion if he later found any 'damage'?

 

As has already been commented, since when did blacking become 'precious'?

 

 

Mike

[stagedamager]

Make a fender out of bubble wrap and gaffer tape to put along the side of the boat and stick it to the side with more gaffer. This only works in temperatures under 0 degrees. Be careful not to rip the paint off though, gaffer sticks tight! I learnt this from my friend, Peter Ian staker

Regards

Dan

[system 4-50]

...

or you could hang wooden planks down the sides along the water line to act as a barrier to icebergs

This is the bit that I wanted to know more about. I get the impression that nobody actually does this. Is that right? Is there anybody out there in CWFland who has tried it? Anybody got pictures of it being done?

It just doesn't sound practical.

 

My blacking became precious when my boat builder told me that because it doesn't grow on trees it would cost me money to replace. Cue impoverished retirement hardluck story.

 

 

What sort of damage do "icebergs" do? Is it just chips or does it score along the water line?

 

I might be a little oversensitive on damage - some recreationally-challenged individuals danced on my car last week and put dents in all over the roof.

[NB Alnwick]

Soft bituminous blacking will rarely last much more than a year - so it will be an annual expense irrespective of any ice damage.

 

Multiple coats of epoxy blacking have, so far, proved resistant to damage during our cruises through ice up to four inches thick.

[system 4-50]

Blimey are you the bloke in the status boat whom I bumped ever so slightly coming out of Hilmorton top lock the other day who went absolutely MENTAL and ranted and raved about how he would sue me into oblivion if he later found any 'damage'?

Mike

 

Nope. How do such people cope on the canal system? I was rammed twice whilst stationary in my first month on the water.

 

 

If you saw my amateurish half-complete hand painted job you would realise that I would have difficulty in identifying additional damage to the upper parts of the boat...

And I accept bumps as inevitable, to be accepted cheerfully. I can touch them up easily enough. The bits that bother me are the ones where I can't fix them myself without involving other people such as boat lifters etc.

 

 

 

[Paul Evans]

I can't say I have seen a wooden boom used to protect a boat from ice - I have seen necklaces of tyres but i think they were used as protection from other boats - and it's not something I would consider. What a faff when you want to go cruising in winter and have to move the boom first!

 

It's true - blacking costs money but B-O-A-T stands for Bung Out Another Thousand. Something you will just have to get used to if you want to continue boating. In my opinion, boating is worth every penny!

 

You will do more damage to your blacking if you go ice-breaking (and some on here won't agree with that either) than you will suffer from a bit of pushed ice. You'll get more chips and scrapes going through locks and bridge-holes in the summer than you will from pushed ice in the winter.

 

Stop worrying, enjoy your boat and get out there!

[carlt]

This is the bit that I wanted to know more about. I get the impression that nobody actually does this. Is that right? Is there anybody out there in CWFland who has tried it? Anybody got pictures of it being done?

It just doesn't sound practical.

I used to put down ice planks, every winter (Scaffold planks, dangled from the gunwales) but that was to protect my wooden boat from the ice, rather than any blacking that might have been hanging on.

[alan_fincher]

This is the bit that I wanted to know more about. I get the impression that nobody actually does this. Is that right? Is there anybody out there in CWFland who has tried it? Anybody got pictures of it being done?

It just doesn't sound practical.

If you are somewhere where people come past fairly "robustly", you may find the boards rubbing up and down in the "waves" when you are not iced in, rub as much blacking off, as you actually gain protection at the waterline from possible ice damage.

 

If it's conventional blacking, you might as well have it scraped off by ice at the waterline, as this will mean it can't then get dissolved off by the regular diesel spills one tends to encounter!

[nb Innisfree]

Before I collected my Sailaway at the start of the year, I visited Whilton Marina, and whilst there I saw a nb come in, dislodging huge sheets of thick ice towards neighbouring boats.

I have worried about my boat since.

What can I do to protect my precious blacking?

My mooring appears to be quite exposed judging by the damage done to one of my nappy pins by passing traffic.

 

I used to worry too but after lots of ice floes ramming and sliding along the sides of our steel nb I have been unable to detect any damage to the blacking, cruising on the other hand removes blacking from our bows but not from the sides. it appears to me to be ice constantly being forced upwards against the blacking, acting like a scraper, that does the damage. When we were forced to cruise in thick ice in early Jan '09 we docked our boat at the end of March and found quite a bit of blacking removed leaving bare steel but this was absolutely rust free! Don't know if it was the close proximity of the anodes or not that prevented any corrosion. The thing is not to worry, the sound of ice on the side of a steel hull sounds horrendous but it does little if any harm.

Edited September 7, 2010 by nb Innisfree

[Natalie Graham]

 

 

What sort of damage do "icebergs" do?

 

As long as you haven't named your boat Titanic you should be fine.

 

 

[DHutch]

You would be very unlucky (read, it wont happen) to sustain any damage from ice with a modern boat, the sides are typically 6mm steel, its going no where.

 

Clearly damage of any kind is better not done, and the water line is where you want paint the most. However, ultimately it does happen that i comes off, and if like most its kept in the water over winter, at some point, someone will move, and some will come off. Our blacking is a vinal type and a little harder than most without being two pack. However i can still come off, so every four years, it goes into drydock at worsley for a week adn we have a whip round and put another two coats on.

 

 

Daniel

[Keeping Up]

When blacking a boat, wouldn't it make sense to add an extra coat about one rollers-width around the waterline? IS this ever done, and if not why not?

[Chris-B]

Before I collected my Sailaway at the start of the year, I visited Whilton Marina, and whilst there I saw a nb come in, dislodging huge sheets of thick ice towards neighbouring boats.

I have worried about my boat since.

What can I do to protect my precious blacking?

My mooring appears to be quite exposed judging by the damage done to one of my nappy pins by passing traffic.

 

Get your own dry dock like us !

[Naughty Cal]

When blacking a boat, wouldn't it make sense to add an extra coat about one rollers-width around the waterline? IS this ever done, and if not why not?

 

We did that with our antifoul earlier in the year. Two coats to the whole hull and a third at the bow and waterline. Common place when antifouling cruisers.

 

To the OP, i think you are worrying about a non problem. Blacking as with antifoul paint is a consumable item and will get worn or damaged during the course of the year. More damage will be done during a typical summers use than the few weeks of the year that we get ice on the canals/marinas.

 

We moor in a marina full supposedly fragile GRP cruisers that all managed to withstand last winters big freeze with little or no damage to the antifoul despite numerous boat movements through the ice throughout the period. Narrowboats with their steel hulls and blacking should be able to withstand much more ice movement.

 

So to sumise stop worrying too much about a problem that doesnt exist. Enjoy the winter. It is a magical time to be afloat.

[Dekazer]

We haven't protected our boat from ice, and have been out ice breaking, and yes - you do get some blacking scratched off. I have heard (although not tried) that a touch up on this area is fine.

 

The tip I heard (on the forum perhaps?) was to moor the boat, weight/tie it so it lists away from you, and touch up the bare spots. When dry, turn the boat around and repeat on t'other side. It seemed like a sensible stop gap if you're worried, but I'm with the others - blacking's sacrificial so don't worry too much about it

 

Edited for speeling and spacing

Edited September 8, 2010 by Dekazer

[Mrs Tawny Owl]

Hi I wouldn't worry about it either.

 

We blacked the boat 4 years ago ourselves in November, then had to move her back.

 

We did wonder at the time if the ice was not doing the blacking any good, but then it was only a week old, and the ice was 1/2in thick at least.

 

No noticeable problems when she came out last time.

 

The problem with that was backing her about 1/2 mile down the arm at Brinklow from the dry dock. She didn't steer very well in reverse at tickover past the moored boats (never does), and the ice was thick enough to stop her turning the way I wanted anyway. Still with me steering and Richard on the front with the barge pole we managed, and didn't hit any of the moored boats. I was glad when we got out

 

We love cruising in the winter and watching and listening to the ice breaking in front of us. If it's very thin it just breaks and sounds lovely, a bit thicker and you push sheets of it over each other, great fun

 

Sue

[DHutch]

The tip I heard (on the forum perhaps?) was to moor the boat, weight/tie it so it lists away from you, and touch up the bare spots. When dry, turn the boat around and repeat on t'other side. It seemed like a sensible stop gap if you're worried, but I'm with the others - blacking's sacrificial so don't worry too much about it

Also never done it, but u would imagine a lenght or two of 2*4 tied to the handrails and weighted or tied down at the end would produce the roll required to expose 6inchs of side with little drama.

 

 

Daniel

[ymu]

Start by repating after me:

 

Blacking is not precious.

Blacking is made to wear out.

Blacking is not precious.

Blacking is made to wear......

 

The short answer is very little unless you want to crane your boat out of the water. Blacking is there to provide a measure of protection for the hull and as such has to be seen as a consumable not a fixed asset. Take heart from the facts that, generally, we have warm, wet winters not cold dry ones (just to prove there's nothing wrong with my long term memory, I learned that for O Level Geography) and that global warming is on its way.

Global warming doesn't mean that winters will globally be warmer everywhere, just that average global temperatures will be higher. It's entirely possible that it will cause British winters to be harsher. That's why it's now usually referred to as "climate change", as the effects are much more complicated than the term "global warming" implies. Also, it's not "on its way" - it is here, but it wasn't politically convenient to acknowledge this until peak oil became a serious problem.

 

/pedant

[luctor et emergo]

View PostDekazer, on 08 September 2010 - 02:27 PM, said:

The tip I heard (on the forum perhaps?) was to moor the boat, weight/tie it so it lists away from you, and touch up the bare spots. When dry, turn the boat around and repeat on t'other side. It seemed like a sensible stop gap if you're worried, but I'm with the others - blacking's sacrificial so don't worry too much about it

 

Also never done it, but u would imagine a lenght or two of 2*4 tied to the handrails and weighted or tied down at the end would produce the roll required to expose 6inchs of side with little drama.

 

If you do that, remember that Bitumen in it's 'wet' state is a Marine Polutant... Make sure you don't spill any in the water.

[WotEver]

If you do that, remember that Bitumen in it's 'wet' state is a Marine Polutant... Make sure you don't spill any in the water.

I didn't know that.

 

If you did drop some in the water, wouldn't it simply sink and then set on the bottom? (I'm not suggesting that it's therefore not a pulltant, I'm just curious what wet blacking would do if dropped into the water).

 

Tony