Thick Ice / Moving a Narrowboat ?

[tidal]

Damn!
I had to look up one of them Phil

 

You never know when you are going to learn something new so thanks.

[Heffalump]

I qualified as a motorsport engineer, studied materials and their properties, learned how to create composite materials, how to machine metals using manual lathes and knee mills, how to weld using a manual metal arc, oxy-acetyline, MIG and TIG, but I still wouldn't like to put money on what survives best crawling through a ditch covered in ice.

 

I make concrete now - would that be better?

 

Oh, I have got my swimming proficiency too

[Naughty Cal]

Too true!

 

We can't find anyone worth shouting about to replace my oppo that retired in May, (although he was good enough to give us 14 1/2 years notice he was going to finish in 2015!) I am absolutely bloody knackered trying to keep up with the backlog!

 

That porky is beautiful, Liam gets his mitts on some tasty stuff by the look of it (lowered golf excepted )

He is very lucky and gets to work on some very nice cars. Gets to drive them as well lucky sod.

Thanks for that. You learn something every day. Presumably we are talking about different alloys of aluminium for the anode and whatever is to be protected. I presume that sea water is sufficient to render the protective oxide coating on the anodes effective. I don't think aluminium anodes would protect aluminium in fresh water.

We have been using aluminium anodes for four years. I can assure you they also work in fresh water.

 

We stripped the drive back to bare metal last year and there was not a sign of corrosion anywhere on it.

[Giant]

[GreyLady]

I qualified as a motorsport engineer, studied materials and their properties, learned how to create composite materials, how to machine metals using manual lathes and knee mills, how to weld using a manual metal arc, oxy-acetyline, MIG and TIG, but I still wouldn't like to put money on what survives best crawling through a ditch covered in ice.

 

I make concrete now - would that be better?

 

Oh, I have got my swimming proficiency too

bugger I missed off my swimming badge and my cycling proficiency certificate.

[ditchcrawler]

I think I would be moving slightly faster, I wonder where the camera man was?

[tidal]

I think I would be moving slightly faster, I wonder where the camera man was?

 

Behind the camera cranking it (it was the 1920s after all)

IIRC the icebreaker still exists in a Finnish historical collection but history seems to say nothing of the spectators or the cameraman

However as the film survived one presumes the camera and the operator did as well.

 

I'd need a very long lens and/or many available changes of underpants to attempt to film such activities

 

 

[ditchcrawler]

 

 

 

I'd need a very long lens and/or many available changes of underpants to attempt to film such activities

 

 

That is what I was getting at, they didnt seem very bothered until the boat was nearly on them but that could be due to a long lens and the boat being further back than it looked.

[tidal]

That is what I was getting at, they didnt seem very bothered until the boat was nearly on them but that could be due to a long lens and the boat being further back than it looked.

Given the depth of field, the people passing the camera and the sudden way the films end (there's at least two I know of seemingly from the same cameraman) I would suspect that the lens wasn't very long at all and that the cameraman (if it was a man) was possessed of a very large pair (or the female equivalent)

And possibly was fitted with a cork

 

ETA

The second video is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_CKmaI0vGo

I haven't worked out how to put a live version on the forums yet

Edited October 26, 2015 by tidal

[GreyLady]

There are many with balls of steel, check out clip 4.

 

Edited October 26, 2015 by GreyLady

[harve90]

I moved from Near Worcester up through the village at Hanbury wharf last week during the mini ice age. (It was a case of needs must) i didn't see much disturbance to the moored boats although i was going as easy as the ice would allow, "apologies for any disturbance".

At one stage i had considered attempting to lash the CQR anchor to the bough to act as a breaker in the event of the ice becoming to hard. Just wondering if this would have worked or not.

[Sea Dog]

I moved from Near Worcester up through the village at Hanbury wharf last week during the mini ice age. (It was a case of needs must) i didn't see much disturbance to the moored boats although i was going as easy as the ice would allow, "apologies for any disturbance".

At one stage i had considered attempting to lash the CQR anchor to the bough to act as a breaker in the event of the ice becoming to hard. Just wondering if this would have worked or not.

Well Harve, I subscribe to the school that thinks your blacking around the waterline is now rogered so keep ane eye on that area and be prepared to treat it in the spring.

 

Unfortunately, I think that damage done to the waterline blacking of the boats you passed may remain unknown to the owner, who may well be posting here next spring with something like "I only blacked my boat in September and it's already rusting - has anyone else had this problem with (insert name here) blacking?"

[bassplayer]

Well Harve, I subscribe to the school that thinks your blacking around the waterline is now rogered so keep ane eye on that area and be prepared to treat it in the spring.

Unfortunately, I think that damage done to the waterline blacking of the boats you passed may remain unknown to the owner, who may well be posting here next spring with something like "I only blacked my boat in September and it's already rusting - has anyone else had this problem with (insert name here) blacking?"

My little run through the ice a couple of weeks ago cleared a lot of the weed and crap off the hull around the waterline. Mind you I was planning to black it this year anyway so it's probably saved some effort!

[furnessvale]

 

Unfortunately, I think that damage done to the waterline blacking of the boats you passed may remain unknown to the owner, who may well be posting here next spring with something like "I only blacked my boat in September and it's already rusting - has anyone else had this problem with (insert name here) blacking?"

Any boater concerned about such matters should deploy ice boards, NOT expect other boaters to stop cruising.

 

George ex nb Alton retired

[Sea Dog]

Any boater concerned about such matters should deploy ice boards, NOT expect other boaters to stop cruising.

 

George ex nb Alton retired

We'll, I'd certainly consider that if leaving my boat on an online mooring George, but it's not really practical to carry 60' of boards when out cruising just in case it freezes.

[Peter X]

Would some sort of long inflatable tube provide a good solution for protecting the blacking of a boat moored online in winter?

It shouldn't need so much storage space when not in use, but it would have to be made of the right plastic, strong enough not to burst under pressure, and the right weight not to end up above or below the ice.

[nb Innisfree]

Just a thought but for moored boats I wonder if plastic tarpaulins hung over the side with suitable weights attached would acts as a 'lubricating' layer and keep ice from contact with hull sides. They would only need to be cut into narrow strips, maybe doubled to increase 'lubricity'.

 

Or am I in fantasy land?

[ditchcrawler]

Just don't go out in the winter months

[furnessvale]

Just don't go out in the winter months

Shall we add that to water shortages in summer, queues at locks during school holidays, planned and emergency stoppages etc.

 

Perhaps we shouldn't cruise at all?

 

We'll, I'd certainly consider that if leaving my boat on an online mooring George, but it's not really practical to carry 60' of boards when out cruising just in case it freezes.

I have sympathy for your position but if the only other solution is to ban other boaters from legitimately cruising I am not with you on this one.

 

George ex nb Alton retired

Edited January 31, 2016 by furnessvale

[Emerald Fox]

Hmmm... whilst eating fruit salad I thought I'd read someone's narrowboat blog and saw this from NB Inca and remembered this subject is going on here...

 

"Here we go again !. Ice on the canal and for some bizarre reason some boats just have to move through it. Not only does it take the blacking off their boats (picture above) but also off moored boats as well. It can even puncture a hole in GRP/plastic boats. There was a lot of shouting when the first boat passed us because a boat moored just behind us had recently spent £500 having his blacking done. It turned out that the moving boat was a share boat and it had to get back to the marina for a change over,which was a bit of a poor excuse as the cold weather had been well forecasted in advance."

 

http://nbinca.blogspot.fi/

 

Mixed opinions, it seems. For once, I do not know of which opinion I am in this matter.

[Sea Dog]

 

I have sympathy for your position but if the only other solution is to ban other boaters from legitimately cruising I am not with you on this one.

Hang on there George, I understand where you're coming from, but I'm not suggesting banning anything at all. I was merely suggesting that ice breaking wasn't something to be looked upon as routine with no consequences.

 

Once upon a time, when boats were tough and boating folk were even tougher, breaking ice was both essential and commonplace. There may always be exceptions, but nowadays most of us could enjoy a pause by the stove til the thaw came with few issues.

[furnessvale]

Hang on there George, I understand where you're coming from, but I'm not suggesting banning anything at all. I was merely suggesting that ice breaking wasn't something to be looked upon as routine with no consequences.

 

Once upon a time, when boats were tough and boating folk were even tougher, breaking ice was both essential and commonplace. There may always be exceptions, but nowadays most of us could enjoy a pause by the stove til the thaw came with few issues.

Fair enough.

 

Having been shouted at for moving with a coal boat, a restaurant boat AND an icebreaking tug when moving through ice, I can get a bit stroppy!

 

George ex nb Alton retired

[Emerald Fox]

Why don't canals have electric cables running along the bottom, like the element in a kettle, to keep them a bit warm and ice free?

[system 4-50]

Why don't canals have electric cables running along the bottom, like the element in a kettle, to keep them a bit warm and ice free?

No, no, on pylons overhead so we can all have electric boats like the trains. Now let me see, the BSS requirements for 25,000VAC would be ....

Oh but that would still leave the ice. mmmm?

[Gwydion]

Why don't canals have electric cables running along the bottom, like the element in a kettle, to keep them a bit warm and ice free?

 

CRT should just stick a load of anti-freeze into the cuts. That should do the job quite nicely.