Grassed boat and ice

patrick mccarthy

patrick mccarthy

Well-known member
I live in wny and hunt 2 of the great lakes and the niagara river.
Temps in the late season can be low teens or single digits, possible negative wind chill.
1) What do you do about ice build up, when your boat is grassed?
2) How or will it effect your boat?
3) are you better off without the grass in these conditions?
Thanks
Pat
 
Pat I live across the lake in VT and we also hunt the late season in December January in New York. On lake Ontario the finger lakes and the river a good rule of thumb is no permanent grass and white sheets.


I know from the waterfowl meeting here that the NY biologist was telling us not vegetation on a boat you are hunting in NY unless it is fake. We just use whit cam or white sheets
 
Patrick,


Icing conditions will have a negative effect very much similar to icing conditions with airplanes. Ice is heavy, ice weight changes center of gravity, ice weight can cause to boat to become nose heavy or stern heavy both of which will greatly affect handling.


I can not eliminate icing so I limit my exposure in those conditions. I hunt close to shore. I hunt shallow water. I play it safe.
 
Ditto what Dave said. I've had up to 1/2" of ice on my BB3 and it definitely is a game changer when it comes to performance and that was when my blind was down. I can't imagine how dangerous it could be with an iced up tall blind. IMO I'd take all the grass off if you anticipate icing conditions.
 
I also hunt the Finger Lakes and Lake Ontario during the late season. I have a hard aluminum blind without any grass for that reason. Honestly there really aren't that many places where I tuck the boat in against grass.
 
Patrick,

This year I'm trying a new grassing method (which I hope will avoid icing problems).

The method is to use twine to tie natural grass (salt marsh hay in my case) to several bungee cords, and then to hook the grassed bungee cords to the boat's grass rails. I imagine this technique would be possible with artificial grass too.

Two benefits I've found is (1) I can remove (or attach) these in a matter of minutes; and (2) I can re-arrange them to suit whatever hunting situation I happen to find.

Seeing pictures of Steve Sanford's grassing (where he appears to tie grass on with twine) gave me the inspiration for this (though I'm not sure if Steve's grassing is easily removable. In any case, I imagine he can tell you.

I haven't had any real icing conditions so far, but I suspect this arrangement will help me cope If I do run into some real cold weather.
 
If you are going to leave natural (or I guess artificial) grass on the boat in potentially icy conditions make sure to trim it so that it's not hanging down into the water. That will help to mitigate drag and early ice build up on the boat. In heavy freezing spray conditions you are going to get ice no matter what. I hunted in some extremely icy conditions in the past few 'polar vortex' years and made sure to hunt areas I knew well and had a relatively short and easy run back to the ramp. Also you should really have a partner or two while hunting in the ice just to keep an eye on each other.

Notice I keep the salt hay trimmed above the feather edge. Still had some good ice build up on this day.

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First off... you are best to keep any and everything out of the water as the ice will grow on it. The weight of the ice will effect performance and the safety of the boat. The LAST thing you want is ice high.
 
That is an awesome colored and pattern on the motor cover. Where did you get it? If you don't mind.

Thanks
 
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Hey Craig..... no such thing as polar vortex. The world powers straightened that out last week in Paris.

Hope to see you out there Phil
 
The motor cover was homemade by yours truly. It's very simple though. Avery KW-1 burlap folded over and hot glued at the seam to form the cover. I made them for my dad and I a couple years ago and they are still going strong. I usually use a bungee around the cowling to put some natural cover in to break up the shape of the motor.

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Phil whatever they would like to call it we could all use a little cold snap for a bit. I've been getting far too many sun tans this season.
 
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