Thin Ice

[Bob Gray]

    T'is the season to start saiing on thin ice. Hopefully all of us will have ice picks, a whistle and possibly a inflatable life jacket on. Unfortunately when sailing on thin ice, a boat occasionly will go thru and the skipper and boat will have to be rescued. If a boat goes thru, there's a real good chance that the nearby ice is dangrously thin. There are however different ways to perform he rescue including sliding a mast to the skipper, getting a line to him etc. When it comes time to rescue the boat or in some cases getting close enough to the skipper a real problem can arise. Flat bottomed boats and inflatable rafts can work if available. A 4X8 sheet of plywood has been also known to work.
   In rural areas, boats, rafts, and sheriffs aren't always readily available in a timely manner. What some of our club members carry are inflatable tubes. Those tubers like the O'brien that are towed behind boats are  large and inflate quickly. SUV or large truck inner tubes work too, you just have to make sure you have a pump available. The nice thing about tubes is that they dissapate weight nicely, slide easily and the rescuer is on his own life raft if the ice breaks under him. The tube allows the rescuer to get close to the rescuee in relative safety. It's not a perfect device but its's very portable and beats the devil out of nothing. If any of you have any other methods or devices, please share it with the rest of us.

                                            Bob