admin said
 

If there’s half an inch of ice or less you can still forge your way through. Anything more and stand a change of damaging your hull. Of course the strength of your hull depends upon the thickness and quality of steel.

If you are going to be living on your boat full time, why bother trying to move when everything’s frozen solid? Plan ahead, find a comfortable winter mooring and just enjoy sitting in front of a blazing fire doing nothing much at all!

It’s not always as simple as that. Not everyone wants to find a ‘comfortable winter mooring’. After all, we are continuous cruisers and marinas can get a bit boring. You need to look at the weather forecast each day and see how the temperatures are going. If there is a chance of ice then head for the nearest water tap. You can always keep that unfrozen by leaving the tap dripping, although some well meaning passer-by might turn it back off!

You can move through ice but half an inch might be pushing it a bit. It’s not likely to damage your hull but it will strip the paint off. If you’re pushing sheets of ice to the side of you as you move, other boaters are likely to get a bit upset and, if there are glass fibre boats around, then it’s a no-no because of the intensive damage that ice can do to them.

We were stuck in thick ice at Lemonroyd, near Leeds, for 7 weeks during the winter of 2010/11. We couldn’t move but the oil tankers could. It’s no fun being stuck in ice when someone else is trying to push there way through it!

C & RT do offer winter moorings, at a price, but the vast majority of these are unsuitable for liveaboards, having little or no facilities and miles from a shop, bus stop or pub. There are probably less than a dozen C & RT sites that offer electricity. Most private marinas tend to be out of town so can be difficult if you’re reliant on public transport.

We’ve chosen Birmingham and the BCN for this winter. Maybe see you there?

Regards

Pete

lyraboat said

admin said

crosswind said
My question was sparked by my memories of heavy snow in the Kendal area, whilst in London the weather was a deal warmer.

Sometimes, but not always. The temperature in Kendall at 7am today was 6 degrees,  London 2 degrees and where I live in Warwickshire it’s 4 degrees at the moment (must throw some more coal on the fire!)

Birmingham is a good choice, another consideration for winter movement is the stoppage programme, you get caught up in it somewhere not so pleasant. We stayed around the Birmingham area a few years ago because the stoppages prevented us from going where we wanted to. You don’t have to have a permanent mooring, just toodle around in the area.

I forgot to mention the stoppage list. That’s another reason for Birmingham as there is always an alternative route, the trip boats keep the city centre bit clear of ice, within reason and there are plenty of goiod mooring sites.

Regards

Pete