Idling thru "skim ice"

[binmack]

I keep my boat on a lift in a lagoon and use it year round (New Jersey)

This past weekend, early in the morning I ran into "skim ice" while idling.

The water was dead flat and I didn't notice it till I was in it. I only knew it was there because of the sound of it breaking. After lifting the boat I checked for the gelcoat damage and found none.

Do anyone have and experience with running our boats thru very thin ice ? Has anyone had any damage from it?

Thanks

 

[moose8420]

Boating in my neck of the woods year round definitely leads to seeing ice from time to time. In the summer we see ice bergs occasionally and in the winter skim ice and river ice. I was out crabbing one year and trying to get back before it was too dark, ran into a bunch of river ice that had been pushed out into the bay. I hit a few pieces at 30 before I realized what was going on since visibility was not that great. I was worried I might have put a hole in the hull, but after inspection I did not see any issues and the boat floated overnight on anchor. I did slow down once I realized what was going on, and I'm glad I did, cause there were large chucks of ice that would have hurt if we had hit them at 30. I have not seen much or any damage to my hull, but my bow already has a few bumps from the trailer.

 

[nicknotsebastian]

i once asked a similar question as i too have ventured into some calmer back bays in NE winter. answer i got on skim ice from an old timer boat dock/fishing acquaintance was "if it'd cut your hand it'll scratch your gel coat but not much else". general "rule of thumb" i was given on ice was "imagine you were hitting it with a wooden hammer how hard you need to hit it to break it, if you were hitting your boat that hard with the same hammer would it be doing damage"...ice can be thick and still

 

[nicknotsebastian]

sorry - hit enter by accident...

ice can be 1" thick and still be soft/part melting so not gonna do damage or can be 1/2 " thick and hard as a rock/solid and do damage. obviously going appropriately slow etc.