How to Get Heavy Ice Out of a Canoe

[lowangle al]

I have an immovable canoe up in Ak. A little over a week ago my neighbor sent me a photo of my OT Tripper that had been blown from its' place. It was upright on the walkway leading to my front door. When leaving the house yesterday morning the boat was impeding my backing out of the garage so I had to move it. I then discovered that the rain we had the previous week had put a substantial amount of water in the boat. Now with temperatures in the single digits the water was frozen. It took all my strength to move it just a little over a foot and that was downhill.

I thought it would have slid easier but there must be a crust of frozen snow on the bottom of the hull that isn't sliding on the crusty snow on the ground. I need to move the boat about 25 feet on a slight uphill to get it out of the way, and am thinking of using a come-along. Not wanting to damage the boat I'm thinking using a lining harness to minimize stress on a thwart or seat that I would have to tie off on. Any thoughts?

 

[Alan Gage]

I then discovered that the rain we had the previous week had put a substantial amount of water in the boat. Now with temperatures in the single digits the water was frozen.

I'd try flipping it upside down and banging on the bottom of the hull to see if the ice would break loose. The seats and thwarts would keep the ice from falling out but hopefully it will break into chunks of manageable size.

Alan

 

[lowangle al]

I did give it a quick try to turn it over but it was too heavy. When I get back to it I'll try again or maybe just start busting it up with a hammer and chisel.

 

[Steve in Idaho]

I have an immovable canoe up in Ak. A little over a week ago my neighbor sent me a photo of my OT Tripper that had been blown from its' place. It was upright on the walkway leading to my front door. When leaving the house yesterday morning the boat was impeding my backing out of the garage so I had to move it. I then discovered that the rain we had the previous week had put a substantial amount of water in the boat. Now with temperatures in the single digits the water was frozen. It took all my strength to move it just a little over a foot and that was downhill.

I thought it would have slid easier but there must be a crust of frozen snow on the bottom of the hull that isn't sliding on the crusty snow on the ground. I need to move the boat about 25 feet on a slight uphill to get it out of the way, and am thinking of using a come-along. Not wanting to damage the boat I'm thinking using a lining harness to minimize stress on a thwart or seat that I would have to tie off on. Any thoughts?

I'd be real careful about how much tension I apply with that come along. Remember, you're pulling against only two bolts at the ends of the thwart. Seems like if a come along is needed to move it, you'd be pressing your luck.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

Any thoughts?

Back your car, unseen, into the canoe to shove it downhill into the public road. Then place an emergency road blockage call to the highway department to bring up the big tractor we've seen pictured. Tip the tractor driver $50 to move the canoe up the hill.

 

[lowangle al]

Well, I got the job done. I broke the ice up with a digging bar. Luckily it wasn't bonded to the hull so it broke up in big chunks which I threw out. Alan's idea would probably have worked if I was able to turn the boat over. The ice was about 7 inches from the gunnel in the bow and extended beyond the center thwart. I'd say it was more than 50 gallons but less than 100.

Always looking for the easy way, my first inclination was to just pull it out of the way and let it melt in the spring. At least I knew it wasn't going to blow away with that weight in it.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

Well, I got the job done.

Congrats, Al. You may want to consider investing in some tie-down rope for your wind-wandering-when-you're-gone canoe.

I'm going to move all these "How to Get Heavy Ice Out of a Canoe" posts into a separate thread by that name.

 

[SouthernKevlar]

Congratulations on the problem solving. I was going to suggest a bit of chain and a come-along to move it, then wait for an above freezing day. Royalex is tough stuff.

 

[kahel]

after all the brutal suggestions and also applications ...

my question: was salt or hot water it self never an option to melt the ice? - and then simply pour out the water?

 

[lowangle al]

Salt wasn't even on my list Kahel. I've never used it in all my years in Ak., but I've gone through a couple tons of sand in 60 lb bags. It doesn't work at temps below 15 degrees F and it was a lot of ice. Maybe 500 lbs. or more. I appreciate the advice though.

 

[Gamma1214]

Glad it worked out & you didn't damage the hull. FWIW, calcium chloride will work at -16F (-28C) and is cheap if you buy the flakes used in tractor tires. (it'll still eat up your sidewalk and your vehicles but should be safe for plastic canoes)

 

[Tsuga8]

my question: was salt or hot water it self never an option to melt the ice? - and then simply pour out the water?

(it'll still eat up your sidewalk and your vehicles but should be safe for plastic canoes)

I imagine salt might not be great for seat bolts though, or maybe woodwork. Not a big deal if rinsed off promptly, but sounds like prompt outdoor rinses in AK in winter are hard (as in, frozen solid). If the ice had laminated itself to the hull interior, hot water might have released it into a sheet to be more easily broken up as Al ended up doing, but as tough as Royalex is I'm not sure rapid and wide temp swings wouldn't crack it?

As far as the come-along idea, I'd probably have tried towing with my car first, if there was traction. I suppose a z-drag might work too. Regardless, I agree that I'd worry about ripping the woodwork out as well. One could tie a loop out of the far end of the hull, then bring then up and tie a half hitch at the bar end to keep the canoe in line with the direction of pull, but be pulling on the hull as a whole, with the widening of the hull being what the rope catches on. This would function like a timber or killick hitch, I think.

Come to think of it, why don't z-drags and such attach this way?

 

[lowangle al]

I never heard of the Killick Hitch, but that is similar to how I imagined tying on a lining harness. There wasn't enough room to pull it with a vehicle, that's why I was going to try a come-along. When I did get the ice out and flip the boat over I discovered that it was setting on bare ground which was abrasive crushed rock.

Glad it worked out & you didn't damage the hull. FWIW, calcium chloride will work at -16F (-28C) and is cheap if you buy the flakes used in tractor tires. (it'll still eat up your sidewalk and your vehicles but should be safe for plastic canoes)

I have an ice melt product in Pa and just used it last week. Up in Ak, for the most part, sidewalks and driveways remain snow covered all winter, and sometimes the roads too. Trying to keeps things snow and ice free would be futile and not something we shoot for. We just remove the new loose snow so things are passable, and this includes the muni and state snow removal on the roads. In Pa they have a zero tolerance for any snow or ice on the roads and continue to plow and salt until they are bare.

 

[Steve in Idaho]

I imagine salt might not be great for seat bolts though, or maybe woodwork. Not a big deal if rinsed off promptly, but sounds like prompt outdoor rinses in AK in winter are hard (as in, frozen solid). If the ice had laminated itself to the hull interior, hot water might have released it into a sheet to be more easily broken up as Al ended up doing, but as tough as Royalex is I'm not sure rapid and wide temp swings wouldn't crack it?

As far as the come-along idea, I'd probably have tried towing with my car first, if there was traction. I suppose a z-drag might work too. Regardless, I agree that I'd worry about ripping the woodwork out as well. One could tie a loop out of the far end of the hull, then bring then up and tie a half hitch at the bar end to keep the canoe in line with the direction of pull, but be pulling on the hull as a whole, with the widening of the hull being what the rope catches on. This would function like a timber or killick hitch, I think.

Come to think of it, why don't z-drags and such attach this way?

View attachment 145274

Huh. Didn't know that had a name. Used it many times.

 

[Boatman53]

So who knows what a killick is without looking it up?
Glad you got it emptied.
Jim

 

[Tsuga8]

I didn't know a Killick hitch either - it came up when I did an image search for timberhitch. I grabbed that picture as it was watermarked so the source was credited easily within the pic. I suppose now I should look it up and see the difference.

 

[Alan Gage]

So who knows what a killick is without looking it up?

Some cattle have a tendency to lick people. They will search people out in the pen whenever they get a chance and it's very disgusting and annoying.

As a deterrent farmers would often tie the knot shown above around the cow's tongue and tie it off to a post. After 6 hours of not being to pull the tongue back into their mouth there were released and 90% of the time this broke them of the habit.

The name sprung from farmers saying they needed to "kill that cows lick". It was later shortened to Killick.

Alan

 

[PaddlingPitt]

When I saw the picture, I said to myself, “that looks a lot like a timber hitch.” I looked it up, and found that a Killick Hitch is a Timber Hitch in conjunction with a Half Hitch.

 

[Tsuga8]

As for salt and plowing, here in southern NYS they also salt and plow til the pavement is bare and well pot-holed. Seems like a good way to require more road repair and turn our wells salty at the same time. But it's more convenient than chains, so we keep doing it.

Road Salt

It makes our roads safer, but is polluting our waterways. Each year in the US, we use 15-32 million metric tons of road salt to keep winter roads free of ice and snow. A growing body of scientific evidence has found that our dependence on road salt comes at a cost to the environment and human...

www.caryinstitute.org

But that's not related to getting ice out of canoe, so perhaps I digress too far.

 

[lowangle al]

My wife and I run four studded tires in the winter, although I pulled the studs out of mine because I didn't want to buy new summer tires.
I noticed that there seems to be a lot of potholes up here this year, I wonder if it's because of the lack of snow and lots of rain, or maybe because of the warm temps there has been a lot more freeze thaw cycles.

Some cattle have a tendency to lick people. They will search people out in the pen whenever they get a chance and it's very disgusting and annoying.

As a deterrent farmers would often tie the knot shown above around the cow's tongue and tie it off to a post. After 6 hours of not being to pull the tongue back into their mouth there were released and 90% of the time this broke them of the habit.

The name sprung from farmers saying they needed to "kill that cows lick". It was later shortened to Killick.

Alan

I was watching some cows in a pen one time and had my foot on a fence rail. When one of them licked my boot I grabbed it by the tongue. I'm not sure if it learned a lesson, but I did discover just how far a cow could pop its' eyes out.