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Icebreaker

Kiwidad

By Kiwidad
in General Boating

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matty40s Veteran II

matty40s

Posted
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Weeee, Ashdown has now broken her first ice!

 

We have just come through Dudswell Lock 48, and smashed our way through ice! Well, actually, it was no thicker than 3/5ths of a bees b&ll, but it was ice.

 

ah, I can see a beer and Thai meal at the Cowroast Inn beckons...... :cheers:

keep movin as you wouldn't want to get trapped up there......some strange folks around those parts... ;) ;)

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Doug Scullery Collaborator

Doug Scullery

Posted
Posted

When are you being reblacked

 

If the blacking was applied properly a thin layer of ice won't do anything to it. Maybe once your talking about over a centimeter of ice the blacking becomes a concern, but if a thin layer at the beginning of winter scraped it off I'd be straight down to the boatyard that did it demanding a refund.

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furnessvale Influencer

furnessvale

Posted
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The problem when the ice gets to about a centimetre or more is that any passing boat sends sheets of it skidding across the ice and risks damaging the blacking of other boats they are passing. Very inconsiderate IMO.

 

Any boater worried about that possibility should deploy ice boards around his vessel. It is very inconsiderate to expect others not to navigate if they are able. Indeed, I have had abuse hurled at me on several occasions for moving the restaurant boat in such conditions. Far from being inconsiderate, the livelihoods of five persons depend on that boat moving.

 

Funnily enough, I didn't get the same abuse when moving Alton and bringing them their coal and diesel:-)

 

George ex nb Alton

  • Greenie 3
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comfortably numb Proficient

comfortably numb

Posted
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Any boater worried about that possibility should deploy ice boards around his vessel. It is very inconsiderate to expect others not to navigate if they are able. Indeed, I have had abuse hurled at me on several occasions for moving the restaurant boat in such conditions. Far from being inconsiderate, the livelihoods of five persons depend on that boat moving.

 

Funnily enough, I didn't get the same abuse when moving Alton and bringing them their coal and diesel:-)

 

George ex nb Alton

 

 

Fair point, if it's necessary then I agree.

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Teadaemon Proficient

Teadaemon

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My experience of icebreaking, admittedly in GRP cruisers, dayboats, and an old lifeboat was that sheets of ice did not get pushed around very much - the bows of the boat doing the icebreaking tend to push the ice directly beneath them down, the ice bends a little to either side, and then cracks a few feet from the bows. I was breaking ice two or three inches thick on a dyke with moored boats either side, and despite keeping a careful watch did not see any significant lumps of ice impacting on any moored boat.

 

Admittedly most of the thick ice I've broken has been with an old lifeboat with a steel keel band half an inch thick and two inches deep, but I've also not seen any damage to gelcoat (and very little to antifouling) from any of these operations. I did find that once the ice got to about six inches thick then there was little hope of breaking it anyway, the bows of the lifeboat just rode up on top of the ice and sat there, even with me going forward and attempting to add a bit (ok, quite a lot) of weight to them. It also proved impervious to a 22Kg mudweight dropped from as high as I could safely swing it - it just dropped to the ice and sat there with no sign of any cracking. Had I been significantly less risk averse, I strongly suspect I could have stepped out of the boat and walked across the ice.

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Guest

Guest

Posted
Posted

The problem when the ice gets to about a centimetre or more is that any passing boat sends sheets of it skidding across the ice and risks damaging the blacking of other boats they are passing. Very inconsiderate IMO.

 

We once broke ice (on a hire boat) and the ice didn't behave like that at all.

 

We just cut a channel up the middle and the ice to the sides broke into large pieces - it didn't skid anywhere. We passed numerous boats up Barby straight without any such drama.

 

Perhaps if we had given it a bit of welly we may have done but just passing at normal 'passing mooring boats speed' there was no problem.

 

Oh and yes it sounds great too......

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pete harrison Veteran

pete harrison

Posted
Posted (edited)

The problem when the ice gets to about a centimetre or more is that any passing boat sends sheets of it skidding across the ice and risks damaging the blacking of other boats they are passing. Very inconsiderate IMO.

This only seems to have become a problem since owners have had their boats painted like cars. Back in the 1960's, 1970's and 1980's (when owners painted and docked their own boats) steel hulls were blacked with bitumen every couple of years, and it was seen as being sacrificial. Bitumen is easy enough to re-apply at anytime down to the waterline, and slightly below the waterline if the boat is tilted slightly or when the water / diesel tanks are low.

 

This ain't rocket science - When your steel hull rubs against locksides, canal walls / steel piling when tied up and mud on the bottom of the canal - let alone another boat tying alongside, being moored against a marina jetty or the effects of ice - why the heck would anybody apply expensive two pack paint ?

Edited by pete harrison
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alan_fincher Veteran II

alan_fincher

Posted
Posted (edited)

Anyone who thinks this doesn't damage conventional blacking is deluding themselves, IMO....

 

 

 

And the less suitable tools CRT / BW now have available if they still need to do it.

 

Sorry - can't get it to post 3 videos, even as consecutive posts....

 

Trying

instead Edited by alan_fincher
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alan_fincher Veteran II

alan_fincher

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Posted

You've post too many videos Alan - I think the maxi is 2 per post.

 

Tryy again after this one.

Yes, you can't even circumvent by doing it as two posts, because it just appends to the first.....

 

This should now work! :cheers:

 

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alan_fincher Veteran II

alan_fincher

Posted
Posted

We once broke ice (on a hire boat) and the ice didn't behave like that at all.

 

We just cut a channel up the middle and the ice to the sides broke into large pieces - it didn't skid anywhere. We passed numerous boats up Barby straight without any such drama.

 

Perhaps if we had given it a bit of welly we may have done but just passing at normal 'passing mooring boats speed' there was no problem.

 

Oh and yes it sounds great too......

Little doubt the breaking reaches the sides and moored boats here, though!......

 

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Guest

Guest

Posted
Posted

Little doubt the breaking reaches the sides and moored boats here, though!......

 

 

I agree but my experience (once only I admit!) was more akin to the Sickle videos, where the ice just seems to break up around the boat and not impact on other boats or the sides at all.

 

That said I don't think from memory the ice was as thick as it was in that last video you posted.

 

I certainly wouldn't have pressed on if I had any inkling what I was doing was going to affect moored boats and I'm pretty certain it didn't.

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