The Blue View - All Iced In

Now that our big blizzard has passed, there is a prediction of sub-freezing temperatures for the next several days here in Chesapeake, VA, and we were starting to worry about the river freezing. There is no current, it's not very brackish, and we've already seen some skim ice. Will it freeze solid? If so, will the ice damage Nine of Cups? What happens when a barge goes by – will it push the ice into Cups? I remember well, the story of Shackleton's expedition, and how his ship was crushed after becoming trapped in the ice.

We have always managed to sail the high latitudes only during the warmer months and to find more temperate climates during the winter months. Thus, we are truly neophytes when it comes to living aboard in prolonged freezing temperatures. We thought we would be far enough south to avoid a hard freeze, but I'd say we were wrong. Time to do some research.

After searching through a dozen or so forums and checking the recommendations of Boat U.S., the general consensus is that boats usually come to no harm from being frozen in. Several yachties recommend using bubblers or water agitators to keep ice from forming against the hull. On the other hand, several seemingly sane, knowledgeable captains claim they have wintered over in northern Europe and Scandinavia frozen hard in the ice, and their boats did just fine.

There were a few caveats and exceptions, however. Although there was some disagreement, most yachties didn't think motoring through the ice was a good idea, especially with a fiberglass boat. One skipper, who seemed to have a lot of experience, said that he's motored through 2-3 inches (50-75mm) of ice on more than one occasion with no damage other than rubbing off most of the anti-fouling paint along the waterline. Not to worry... unless the wharf is on fire or there is some other major emergency, I can't see us going anywhere until well after the ice is all gone.

Another seemingly knowledgeable captain brought up the possibility of water freezing inside an underwater thru-hull fitting. As the water freezes and expands, it could crack or break the thru-hull, causing a significant leak. On Cups, most of thru-hulls are well below the waterline. Unless the water freezes to a depth of 1 foot (30cm) or more, there is no chance of any of them freezing. We do have three thru-hulls located right at or slightly above the waterline, however. While I think it unlikely that these will become a problem, I will be checking them.

A third potential problem is ice being blown or pushed into us. Although the barge traffic has stopped since the blizzard began, I wonder whether it might be problem when they start running again. I can't imagine there will be enough ice pushed into us to be a threat to Cups, but it may be enough to scratch or gouge our new paint job.

I've read that, in some parts of the world, floats made of hardy reeds are placed around the boat to protect them from floating ice. Another solution I came across is to nail a band of copper sheathing around the boat's waterline. Neither seems very practical for us – guess we'll just take our chances.

P.S. It's now a couple of days since I wrote this blog, and sure enough, we have 1-2 inches of ice surrounding Cups. I've been using a length of 2x4 to break through the ice along the hull (see the video below). I don't know whether it helps or not, but I can't imagine it hurts... plus I didn't have to do my Tabata exercises today.

Fortunately, the weather is warming up tomorrow. Just in time too ... it was almost time to start checking the price of ice skates and snowshoes on Amazon.

The Blue View- Carpe Compedem (Seize the Shackle)

The topic of this week’s Blue View is how to seize a shackle. (Okay – maybe I took a few liberties with my very bad, very rusty Latin). Seizing a shackle prevents the shackle pin from working loose, and on Nine of Cups, we seize most of our shackles. Any shackle that will be in place any length of time, any that are hard to get to or inspect, and any that would result in injury or catastrophic damage if they came loose, are routinely seized.

Depending on the shackle size, I use 8-12 inches (20-30 cm) of .032” (.9mm) monel seizing wire. Monel is a lot more expensive than stainless safety wire, but I prefer it, and a 33’ (10m) roll lasts me a year or two. There are special tools available for twisting the wire, but I find pliers and heavy wire cutters work fine.

The technique I use is shown in the illustrations below.

There are a couple of caveats.

• If the wire is twisted too tightly, it will break (duh). If and when it does, the only recourse is to remove the broken wire and start again.
• Make sure the ends are clipped close to the twists and tucked tightly against the shackle body to prevent it from snagging on a line - or a body part.

When the seizing is to be removed, I grasp the twists with pliers and work the wire back and forth a half dozen times or so until the monel fatigues and breaks. The remaining wire wraps are then quite easy to remove.

The Blue View - Anchor Swivels

An anchor swivel is often used to attach the anchor to the end of the chain. I say often, because not everyone sees any advantage to using a swivel.

The purpose of an anchor swivel is to prevent the anchor rode from twisting excessively. If a boat is anchored for a long period of time in an area of large tidal and/or wind changes, it’s possible that it will do a complete 360 degree swing once or twice a day. Eventually, the rode could twist enough to unlay a 3-strand rope rode or put enough twist into a chain rode to introduce torque stress on the chain and shackles. The twists may also cause a chain rode to bind up and jam a windlass gypsy.

There are potential problems with several swivel designs, however. Some swivels are weaker than the ground tackle for which they are designed. Some are subject to internal corrosion and cannot be easily inspected. Others have no way of seizing the pins and/or bolts, introducing the possibility of the swivel coming apart while in use.

Additionally, some swivels can be damaged or weakened if the pull is side-to-side rather than along the axis of the anchor. The Rocna website suggests adding a short length of chain between the swivel and the anchor shackle to eliminate this problem. On Nine of Cups, however, there isn’t enough distance between the anchor shank and the windlass to add chain between the swivel and the anchor.

In our view, we’ve always thought the risks introduced by adding a swivel outweighed the benefits. While we’ve certainly had the occasional problem in the thousands of times we’ve dropped the hook, none that I recall was due to the lack of a swivel. We do have a heavy bronze bow roller with a groove in it that prevents any twists in the chain from making their way to and jamming the gypsy, and this no doubt helps. And perhaps we’ve never been anchored anywhere long enough in the type of conditions that would introduce sufficient twists in the rode to cause a problem. The only issue – and it is more of an inconvenience than a real problem – is that our anchor sometimes comes out of the water with the flukes facing forward, but this is usually corrected by dipping it back into the water while the boat is moving or by rotating the anchor with a boathook. At any rate, I’m not convinced that a swivel will prevent this.

I like to keep an open mind about new ideas, however, and at a recent boat show I saw a new swivel, made by Mantus, that seems to have overcome all my objections. My first impression was that it’s a very large hunk of 316 stainless steel. It not only looks strong, but the manufacturer’s specs indicate that it is stronger than the 3/8 HT chain we use. It is easily dismantled for inspection, and all the pins are oversized and can be seized. Finally, the business end that attaches to the anchor is terminated in a large shackle, making it unlikely to have problems with side-to-side pulls. Mantus was offering it at a discounted show price with free shipping, and in the interest of keeping myself informed, I bought one.

We’ll be returning to Cups in a little over a week, and I plan to install it then. I’ll keep you posted on my thoughts, good and bad, as it gets used.