Ice Breaking

[tmy5645]

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

 

 

 

[luctor et emergo]

Attempted to break through today, but got stuck where previously broken ice had doubled the thickness... and the prototype ice breaker needs some refinement.

[GSer]

Interesting today, three boats lifted out here today, one had to be brought through the ice a few hundred yards, 1" thick ice = big chunks of bright new bare metal where none was showing before, enough to convince on lookers that ice breaking is perhaps not good for your blacking, sure there may be adhesion issues with the blacking on that particular boat but a quick pick of the coating around the damage appears to indicate a good amount of stick.

 

Not conclusive but males you think.

[matty40s]

 

whatever happened to BW boat Snowdrop which used to do all the icebreaking in the tring region???? It was still in the fleet winter 2009/10??

 

couple of members sneaking into the background there...

Edited February 4, 2012 by matty40s

[alan_fincher]

whatever happened to BW boat Snowdrop which used to do all the icebreaking in the tring region???? It was still in the fleet winter 2009/10??

Its tied up at Apsley yard.

 

 

Too far away to be useful to them here, I guess.

 

BW staff confirmed yesterday that this is a more effective ice-breaker than anything else, including our "Sickle".

[matty40s]

Its tied up at Apsley yard.

 

 

Too far away to be useful to them here, I guess.

 

BW staff confirmed yesterday that this is a more effective ice-breaker than anything else, including our "Sickle".

 

It was, I witnessed it come through lower Berko when I had been stuck for weeks, it just seemed to sail through, slight rise, continue, slight rise, continue.....

[Speedwheel]

 

Snowdrop is a great boat.

 

Is the wooden one sunk?

[ditchcrawler]

Its tied up at Apsley yard.

 

 

Too far away to be useful to them here, I guess.

 

BW staff confirmed yesterday that this is a more effective ice-breaker than anything else, including our "Sickle".

Is that the boat that sank?

[alan_fincher]

Is that the boat that sank?

Well I'd say the evidence is "Yes"!

 

But I guess you mean "is that the boat that was being discussed on here as sunk at Apsley", in which case the answer is still "Yes".

 

I've not been back in the area recently to know what happened since, (picture is from 23 rd Jan).

 

According to some of the Salvation Army chaplains that work the canal in that area, it had been refloated once, but gone down again overnight, sadly.

[Emerald]

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

 

 

Cracking videos (no pun intended) I really enjoyed them.

Is ice likely to damage to the blacking on a moored boat ?

[matty40s]

Cracking videos (no pun intended) I really enjoyed them.

Is ice likely to damage to the blacking on a moored boat ?

not if a boat like snowdrop or sickle is used no.

but the tug that was used may cause some damage due to the direct forces used

[steven wilkinson]

breaking the ice by using the weight of the boat to crack the ice downwards has to be better than pushing it horizontally to crush it!

 

Forces straight down and into the water - v - forces horizontally into the rest of the ice sheet (and anything else frozen into that ice sheet!)

[blackrose]

Well I'd say the evidence is "Yes"!

 

But I guess you mean "is that the boat that was being discussed on here as sunk at Apsley", in which case the answer is still "Yes".

 

I've not been back in the area recently to know what happened since, (picture is from 23 rd Jan).

 

According to some of the Salvation Army chaplains that work the canal in that area, it had been refloated once, but gone down again overnight, sadly.

 

It does look like it had quite a low freeboard, especially for a boat with a bow well deck. Looks too low to be self draining.

Edited February 5, 2012 by blackrose

[alan_fincher]

breaking the ice by using the weight of the boat to crack the ice downwards has to be better than pushing it horizontally to crush it!

 

Forces straight down and into the water - v - forces horizontally into the rest of the ice sheet (and anything else frozen into that ice sheet!)

That is why Snowdrop is so effective.

 

If you look at the bow shape, the big engine literally constantly tries to get it to mount up on top of the ice, so it is effectively constantly falling through it.

 

Whilst this will less likely risk damage to anything else though, it does tend to leave a narrower channel that will quickly again become impassable by anything else.

 

Something that breaks well to the sides as well, (as that modern BW pusher tug had done), gives a better chance of normal lower powered boats getting through for a while afterwards, I would say.

[ditchcrawler]

Well I'd say the evidence is "Yes"!

 

But I guess you mean "is that the boat that was being discussed on here as sunk at Apsley", in which case the answer is still "Yes".

 

I've not been back in the area recently to know what happened since, (picture is from 23 rd Jan).

 

According to some of the Salvation Army chaplains that work the canal in that area, it had been refloated once, but gone down again overnight, sadly.

I knew you would know what I was talking about.

[mykaskin]

breaking the ice by using the weight of the boat to crack the ice downwards has to be better than pushing it horizontally to crush it!

 

Forces straight down and into the water - v - forces horizontally into the rest of the ice sheet (and anything else frozen into that ice sheet!)

 

There's a great picture somewhere showing an empty working boat with it's bow sat on the top of the ice with people walking around it trying to break the ice!

 

Mike

[koukouvagia]

There's a great picture somewhere showing an empty working boat with it's bow sat on the top of the ice with people walking around it trying to break the ice!

 

Mike

 

That's exactly what happened to our motorized butty before it was fitted out and consequently light at the front end. Rode up onto the ice, got stuck and had to be dragged off by the boat that was following us.

 

 

 

 

[GUMPY]

 

whatever happened to BW boat Snowdrop which used to do all the icebreaking in the tring region???? It was still in the fleet winter 2009/10??

 

couple of members sneaking into the background there...

It still is in the fleet

Ian brought Snowdrop past me today, effortlessly breaking the ice on its way north.

[Naughty Cal]

we've also done a bit of ice breaking, but when we were moored in a marina you wern't allowed to move when there was ice!!

 

the reason given was that it could damage the GRP boats, Is this not the same as on the Main line?

 

Could you not sink a GRP with a big sheath of ice? and indeed would you know if you had?

 

We have been out ice breaking on several occasions with NC over the last 3 years and have not managed to damage her yet. In fact the last time we were out (Lincoln Christmas market weekend) it was the moored narrowboaters who were shouting at us because we "might damage their blacking". The GRP boat owners just smiled and waved.

 

Marinas may well have their own rules but GRP boats moored online are the resonsibility of their owners. If they believe them to be at risk of ice damage then they can protect them with ice boards. Most dont bother.

[Mac of Cygnet]

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.

 

And here we are. I know this is very different from most people's boating, but in view of the various threads about ice-breaking just now, it may be of interest. e-mail received today.

 

The weather has been pretty nasty the past couple of days but now it's calmer as we head into the ice which brings it's own problems - waking up in the middle of the night thinking you are in an earthquake as the ship bounces between bergs... Think we have 100km or so of ice to get through and nobody quite knows how long it will take to get to pine island bay. We have a sweepstake going for it. My money is on 8am on the 2nd of feb. The captain is not allowed to partake given his obvious power to delay the ship. One bloke even put money on us not making it in there at all. Who knows...

 

30th jan. progress has slowed somewhat. Made about 400m or so during the day. Ice is very messy with no open patches of water. More than a couple of years worth of ice crumpling together makes for very chunky ice, often with several metres protruding out of the water. This afternoon we seem to have made the worlds biggest slush puppy which rapidly closed in around us as soon as we stopped. This will have burnt over 26 tonnes of fuel (over 20,000 USD worth) All to move less than half a km. We still have 15 miles or so to go before we reach the edge of the ice shelf on antarctica itself. At this rate we are going to run out of fuel!

 

31st jan. So, we managed to reach the ice shelf last night. Only problem being it is a 100 foot cliff as far as the eye can see. There are 2 BAS guys waiting for us on the shelf who found a good spot, though it is several KM away. Spent most of the day trying to get to them, then gave up. We returned to a spot 2 miles from a ramp up to the ice shelf we found ourselves and started chipping away at the ice using the bow of the ship.

 

1 Feb. The ship has covered about 500m since last night, though with all the backing up and ramming ice, the GPS has logged over 30 miles. The ice is so thick it closes in behind the ship preventing the ship going astern easily. I had a crack at driving the ship into the ice myself, but to be honest it felt more like I was stirring porridge given the consistency of the ice. We have spent the last couple of hours going back and forward 50m or so, unable to do much else. The captain said it was similar to conditions he was in on the John Biscoe when everyone had to abandon ship (the ice they were stuck in was drifting towards the rocks at the time. They got a couple of days at Palmer Station then returned when the wind blew the ice, and ship in a favourable direction). Not much danger of us having to do that as we can't really drift anywhere.

Thankfully we managed to clear some space by the afternoon and tie up the ship to some sea ice. 4 people headed off into the distance to scout out the ramp and see if it is suitable for dragging the fuel and caboose up. I headed out myself for a wander after work. Even had a shot at Antarctic mountain biking. I can officially say that I am the first person to ever cycle on the sea ice by the abbot ice shelf, West Antarctica, if not the first person to cycle on any sea ice in West Antarctica... A couple of intrigued penguins looked on wondering what the hell we were doing.

 

3 Feb. So, it turns out that it looks a bit dodgy this spot. Ok to walk on the sea ice, though the prospect of driving along it with a piste basher dragging an 11 tonne box has made the powers at be hesitant to say the least, oh and there was also a crevasse 3m wide which would have needed bridging somehow. We have moved to a new spot, where there is no sea ice at all. Instead we are right up against the ice shelf which sticks out of the water by about 30 feet. The last 24 hours have been spent waiting for the weather to ease (50mph winds preventing anything from happening, though the forecast is good for tomorrow). The plan is to offload directly onto the shelf, though nobody is quite sure how stable the edge of the ice shelf is - I think I will be standing well clear when they lift heavy things onto it!

 

5 Feb. So the weather cleared up nicely and most of the fuel including 150 or so barrels and 45 tonnes of bulk fuel which we pumped into flubbers (big rubber bags) has made it onto the shelf, along with 2 piste bashers for moving it some 450 miles inland. Apparently the value of fuel in Antarctica changes depending on it's location and it is used to barter for services and fuel from other nations. BAS seriously looked at other methods of getting the fuel to west Antarctica such as dragging it 2500km from the American base McMurdo or flying it all in barrels, though the cost would be to much. The method we are using is by far the cheapest but even our method of putting it directly on the abbot ice shelf brings a $300 barrel of fuel up to $1200.

This morning is a bit nippy -17 with a wind chill of -30 though I hear you are having a cold snap at home too...

[mike31]

you can ice break in a dinghy.

 

made enough water ready to launch my boat in the morning.

[skywatcher]

Cracking picture - thats the way to do it!

 

 

 

Also our blacking doesnt come off in ice either, but ours is B&Q proffesional exterior gloss black which so far has proved a very superior paint to use! Applied straight onto freshly blasted iron and steel, 2 coats.

 

We've used B&Q professional exterior gloss black on a fair ammount of our boat, and it is fine paint indeed, not only in how easy it is to apply, but for its durability. I'm thinking of doing the hull with it next time it comes out of the water, as the bituman blacking is already starting to look tatty, and it was only done last summer. Glad to hear somebody else has done it, as I was wondering if it would be a good idea. Cheers Laurence seems it is.

[Mac of Cygnet]

And a pic received this morning. Still on topic I hope!

 

[onionbargee]

Its strange how all the boat pests who lord it at rallies with their faux tugs, and working boat replicas with 3LW's, and JP3's,and Kelvins are nowhere to be seen when there's a bit of ice that needs breaking !

[mrsmelly]

Its strange how all the boat pests who lord it at rallies with their faux tugs, and working boat replicas with 3LW's, and JP3's,and Kelvins are nowhere to be seen when there's a bit of ice that needs breaking !

 

 

Ooooooh.Stop telling the truth its very naughty...............