Ice Breaking

[Martin Megson]

Woke up at Braunston this morning to minus 7 degrees and a frozen canal. Only a thin sheet of about 5mm. After a couple of boats had passed I ventured out as I've only had the boat a month so not sure how ice would affect the handling. Applied a similar technique to driving on ice, slow and smooth. Fairly straight forward although slow speed gentle turns were interesting as at a shallow angle the bow can slid along the edge of the ice rather than turn. Discovered by accident that a short blast in reverse pushes enough water under the boat to lift and crack the ice alongside.

[dor]

Be aware though that only a few mm of ice will strip off your blacking at water level.

[GSer]

First time i encounered ice whist cruising, was 12 years ago, i left the river which w as pushing a bit, straight into the marina which was frozen, first thing that happened was a distict lack of steering, part due to the ice but also due to the speed i was carrying from the river, luckily i managed to stop just in time but i had to back out into the flow just so i could take a second bite.

 

Try not to do any ice breaking now it does damage yours and others blacking, and if i can help it i'll just sit there untill it thaws.

[Rebotco]

Be aware though that only a few mm of ice will strip off your blacking at water level.

 

I assume then, that's another brownie point in favour of the 2 part epoxy blacking?

Hope so cos that's what mine has got. Not going to try a test run though!

 

Brian

[onionbargee]

I assume then, that's another brownie point in favour of the 2 part epoxy blacking?

Hope so cos that's what mine has got. Not going to try a test run though!

 

Brian

Nope, it means you are leaving the bare scratches and patches for the long time between docking, how long do you leave it 5, 10 years ?

 

By that time any bare area may be deeply pitted.

[alan_fincher]

A lame excuse to republish some of the videos of our tug "Sickle" breaking ice......

 

(Pre-dates our ownership - haven't had a chance to try it ourselves yet!.....)

 

 

[matty40s]

quote name='GSer' timestamp='1323552957' post='794046']

First time i encounered ice whist cruising, was 12 years ago, i left the river which w as pushing a bit, straight into the marina which was frozen, first thing that happened was a distict lack of steering, part due to the ice but also due to the speed i was carrying from the river, luckily i managed to stop just in time but i had to back out into the flow just so i could take a second bite.

Try not to do any ice breaking now it does damage yours and others blacking, and if i can help it i'll just sit there until it thaws.

 

feckin ell,the elf and safe tea blacking board are out again, every body get back to the marinas quick, don't venture out in case some nasty ice comes, apparently it might appear soon............

 

let the rest of us enjoy the waterways in peace.........

fantastic 9 hour cruise today, set off before dawn, breaking ice, watched the sun come up, and then set, unfortunately didn't reach destination due to BW bringing forward their lock stoppages at derwent head lock/

[Grace and Favour]

I assume then, that's another brownie point in favour of the 2 part epoxy blacking?

Hope so cos that's what mine has got. Not going to try a test run though!

 

Brian

 

Be careful - - ice doesn't do epoxy blacking any favours, either!

[NB Alnwick]

Be aware though that only a few mm of ice will strip off your blacking at water level.

 

I guess it depends on the quality of the blacking - we often break through ice and the picture below was taken after we had made the four mile journey from Cropredy to Banbury breaking through virgin ice all the way - often as thick as four inches - no blacking lost on our boat and no complaints from those who were freed from their ice-bound state as a result of our efforts . . .

 

[ditchcrawler]

quote name='GSer' timestamp='1323552957' post='794046']

First time i encounered ice whist cruising, was 12 years ago, i left the river which w as pushing a bit, straight into the marina which was frozen, first thing that happened was a distict lack of steering, part due to the ice but also due to the speed i was carrying from the river, luckily i managed to stop just in time but i had to back out into the flow just so i could take a second bite.

Try not to do any ice breaking now it does damage yours and others blacking, and if i can help it i'll just sit there until it thaws.

 

 

feckin ell,the elf and safe tea blacking board are out again, every body get back to the marinas quick, don't venture out in case some nasty ice comes, apparently it might appear soon............

 

let the rest of us enjoy the waterways in peace.........

fantastic 9 hour cruise today, set off before dawn, breaking ice, watched the sun come up, and then set, unfortunately didn't reach destination due to BW bringing forward their lock stoppages at derwent head lock/

Good for you

[GSer]

 

feckin ell,the elf and safe tea blacking board are out again, every body get back to the marinas quick, don't venture out in case some nasty ice comes, apparently it might appear soon............

 

let the rest of us enjoy the waterways in peace.........

fantastic 9 hour cruise today, set off before dawn, breaking ice, watched the sun come up, and then set, unfortunately didn't reach destination due to BW bringing forward their lock stoppages at derwent head lock/

 

Thank god there's still some proper boaters around

[station tug]

A lame excuse to republish some of the videos of our tug "Sickle" breaking ice......

 

(Pre-dates our ownership - haven't had a chance to try it ourselves yet!.....)

 

 

 

i dont always agree with what you say BUT its brilliant that youve got a lovely boat and your more than willing to use it..its a shame that alot have them as status sybols all wrapped up in cotton wool...

good on you allen

[Guest]

Us 'iced in' at Newbold in Feb 2010. We had to break out in order to get the boat back to base in time, the hire company made no complaint or comment about damaged blacking when we returned the boat (we explained what we had done.

 

The best bit of course is the noise it makes while you are breaking it...

 

[blackrose]

I assume then, that's another brownie point in favour of the 2 part epoxy blacking?

Hope so cos that's what mine has got. Not going to try a test run though!

 

Brian

 

It will certainly be more abrasion resisitant than bitumen, but I imagine enough ice breaking will eventually take it off.

 

I wonder what paint systems ice breakers use?

 

Googled it and found this:

 

http://www.hydrex.be/upload/news/pdfs/Ernest_Shackleton.pdf

 

It's a two-part vinyl ester resin paint, reinforced with glass flake, and I bet a can costs a small fortune!

Edited December 11, 2011 by blackrose

[Grace and Favour]

It will certainly be more abrasion resisitant than bitumen, but I imagine enough ice breaking will eventually take it off.

 

I wonder what paint systems ice breakers use?

 

Googled it and found this:

 

http://www.hydrex.be..._Shackleton.pdf

 

It's a two-part vinyl ester resin paint, reinforced with glass flake, and I bet a can costs a small fortune!

ooh - interesting find, Squire . . .

 

It does make me wonder if this will be the way forward for all boats in a few years time

[cotswoldsman]

I must say I do not think it makes much difference to the Blacking. As a CCer who has to try and keep moving every 14 days in the winter, not only for BW but also for such things a water and elsan. My Blacking is still fine. My experience is that as the front breaks the ice it is pushed clear in the main, but is broken anyway so just slides past the sides.

As for boaters moored that are so worried about ice being pushed against their boat sorry but that is life. If you are so worried before the ice arrives put planks down the side of your boat.

 

This hire boat passed me last winter and as can be seen the ice does not damage the side

 

 

 

And this one I took of Dusty on Oxfordshire

 

 

[Taslim]

A lame excuse to republish some of the videos of our tug "Sickle" breaking ice......

 

(Pre-dates our ownership - haven't had a chance to try it ourselves yet!.....)

 

 

 

COOORR! Can I have a go mister?

[matty40s]

we weren't the only
ones out yesterday............

finally worked out how to post to you tube....

This post has been edited 29 times tring to get the vid embedded, thanks john!!! Edited December 11, 2011 by matty40s

[cotswoldsman]

'>http://

 

we weren't the only

ones out yesterday............

 

finally worked out how to post to you tube....

 

Now all you need to do is learn how to post a link.................

[jonk]

I must say I do not think it makes much difference to the Blacking. As a CCer who has to try and keep moving every 14 days in the winter, not only for BW but also for such things a water and elsan. My Blacking is still fine. My experience is that as the front breaks the ice it is pushed clear in the main, but is broken anyway so just slides past the sides.

As for boaters moored that are so worried about ice being pushed against their boat sorry but that is life. If you are so worried before the ice arrives put planks down the side of your boat.

 

 

It looks from these videos that cornering is the main problem? I suppose the ice along the sides directs the boat forward and hence the need for reversing to break away more side ice?

 

John

[cotswoldsman]

It looks from these videos that cornering is the main problem? I suppose the ice along the sides directs the boat forward and hence the need for reversing to break away more side ice?

 

John

 

That is correct quite a lot of reversing involved in a bend. Also if ice is very thick.

 

Edited to say: It is quite often difficult to control the direction of boat it will go in the direction of the ice breaking, and quite often that is not the direction you want to go.

 

 

This post has been edited 29 times tring to get the vid embedded, thanks john!!!

 

Anything you want to know about Digital Aerials or Solar Panels?????

Edited December 11, 2011 by cotswoldsman

[Guest]

It looks from these videos that cornering is the main problem? I suppose the ice along the sides directs the boat forward and hence the need for reversing to break away more side ice?

 

John

 

We found this when we were ice breaking.

 

If it was thin - no problem it had little or no effect on the steering but -

 

Further on up the North Oxford it was pretty thick and certainly it dictated the direction/pace of our turn which occasionally meant we were not at the right spot on the approach to one or two bridges on bends.

[Ange]

 

fantastic 9 hour cruise today, set off before dawn, breaking ice, watched the sun come up, and then set, unfortunately didn't reach destination due to BW bringing forward their lock stoppages at derwent head lock/

 

Just out of curiosity where did you cruise from Matty? Is that Long Eaton power station in your video link? I can't place where the photos are.

[blackrose]

ooh - interesting find, Squire . . .

 

It does make me wonder if this will be the way forward for all boats in a few years time

 

I'm not sure about that particular paint, it's probably a bit specialised, but I don't think many of us will still be using bitumen in the future.

[Mac of Cygnet]

It will certainly be more abrasion resisitant than bitumen, but I imagine enough ice breaking will eventually take it off.

 

I wonder what paint systems ice breakers use?

 

Googled it and found this:

 

http://www.hydrex.be/upload/news/pdfs/Ernest_Shackleton.pdf

 

It's a two-part vinyl ester resin paint, reinforced with glass flake, and I bet a can costs a small fortune!

 

Well I could get No 2 son to give a report back on how it's coping. He's due to rejoin the Shackleton next month in the Falklands, heading back south into the ice.