LAST year, when I took my boat out for blacking, I was interested to see the waterline as I had done about 20 miles of ice breaking (a good 1 inch thick) the year before, writes Maffi Oxford.
I had expected the blacking to have been stripped bare. I was most surprised to see my blacking intact. Not a mark on it. I am not talking any fancy two-pack, but just bog standard Bitumastic that I applied myself 2012. Based on this I am at a loss to understand what it is about ice breaking that that upsets people. Yes I know the noise inside can be disconcerting but the reality is it sounds worse than it actually is.
Far too precious
I find people are far to precious about their blacking. A while back I stopped on the Engine Arm off the old Main Line in Brum overnight. The following morning there was the thinnest covering (0.5 mm) of ice on the canal, yet people still complained, when I moved off, about their blacking: people I might add that hadn't blacked their boats in ages. Of course me being me I did point out that they had to put blacking on before they could (erroneously) accuse me of taking it off.
On the subject of travelling in high winds, often people have to do this. The old boaters never worried about high wind. I always advise people not to slow down lest the wind pushes them into other boats. If you are fighting the tiller in high winds its folly to throttle back, but then the "SLOW DOWN!" shouty people give you grief.