Rugged High Latitude Boats?

[Erik de Jong]

Originally Posted by OceanSeaSpray

I would call this another styling/marketing exercise in the field of the so-called expedition yachts, the politically correct way of referring to these do-it-all not-good-at-anything overweight designs with oversized fuel tanks.

That is indeed true about almost all high latitude boats. They are tough, they are comfortable or they are fast, you can only choose two of the three. Until you engage a designer who knows about the high latitudes and knows about how to make a boat fast.

Since a high latitude boat will never be able to surf, you're basically bound to hull speed which is determined by waterline length. In that case the weight is just a factor and it actually does not matter much how much the boat weighs, as long as all the other parameters that determine sailing capabilities are properly balanced with that weight. The most important factor here is sail area versus wetted area. The wetted area of the boat causes the drag and the sail area provides the drive. Since high altitude sailing ias almost always light air sailing you need to have the smallest possible wetted surface area and the largest possible sail area.

My boat can seriously do all three, she is only 50' on the hull, I need to put a reef in the main when sailing upwind in 6 knots of breeze, I don't really need to start an engine until the wind drops below 5 knots (AP), she is made of half inch steel on a dense grid and is tough as nails.

Earlier this year I got the lucky chance to sail this baby: https://www.kmy.nl/yachts/nanuq/
78 foot, over a hundred ton, but sailing like the devil. We sailed a couple of thousand miles, not a single day under 200 miles. Even with only 5 knots of wind we were doing between 7 and 8 through the water in the English Channel. Certainly, a 78 footer can be made faster than this, but I think it is pretty darn acceptable for a "tank" that can withstand full on arctic ocean ice pressure.

So there is another reason I would highly recommend Dijkstra designing the high latitude boats if you plan on building from scratch, they are one of the very few design offices that understand about high latitude.

[Erik de Jong]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

I think we would all be very interested to hear them!

I realized I never wrote more points, so here are the original ones:
As for high latitude yachts themselves that are meant for going in ice:
- Ice reinforcement should be all around, not just in the bow.
- Twin propellers are an absolute no-go.
- Twin rudders are an absolute no-go.
- Multiple water tight bulkheads to survive single compartment flooding as a minimum, better is dual compartment flooding, though that is harder to achieve in boats smaller than 60 to 65 foot.
- Have a system that allows you to place an emergency rudder from deck.
- Insulation anywhere, not just to the waterline.
- Bilge ventilation in each compartment is a must.
- Get a stainless propeller.
- Oversize the propshaft and add a torsion limiter somewhere in the drive train.
- Consider dry exhaust, or build a rawwater inlet/strainer system that can be reverse flushed when blocked with brash ice.
- Double pane windows throughout, but absolutely no tinting of windows.
- Add blue light search lights with beams that go as far as a mile ahead of the boat.
- Fuel capacity is based on time spend on board (heating) rather than distance that needs to be motored, requires a slightly different way of thinking.

Additional points in completely random order:
- Use the largest possible heat sink you can fit, it will save tremendously on fuel for heating.
- Stay modest with your engine power, most high latitude boats have to much power installed with the idea to push ice, but it is futile. For ice pushing you only need 3hp per ton of boat weight.
- Smallest possible wet surface under water. This will significantly reduce drag and make the boat sail better in light air (80+% of the time in the arctic).
- Large sail area. At least 4m2 of upwind sail areal for every m2 under water, this also to significantly reduce motoring hours
- Powerful deck wash pump, glacial mud is a bitch.
- Chain locker near the base of the mast and if possible chain in the keel, this will reduce the total weight of the boat (need less ballast for same righting moment) and will significantly reduce pitching. Heavy boats are prone to pitching as it is, so any effort to keep weights out of the ends is extremely important.
- Oversize the windlass, you need to anchor in large depths and often use a lot of chain, if you max out on the windlass motor on a regular basis it will wear out much faster.
- Mount the motor for the windlass outside the chain locker, they need a dry place to live long and happy.
- Minimize clutter on deck. Often you see large reels with ropes on deck, forget about that, put them below deck, same with dinghies, fenders and other crap. Once things start to ice up you want anything off the deck to reduce surface area.
- Make large fuel tanks, jerry jugs on deck are straight up dangerous. You don't have to fill all your diesel tanks for every voyage. To increase sailing capabilty you could choose to put tanks in the side of the vessel and transfer diesel from one side to the other in order to create significantly more righting moment. It will make the boat more comfortable and could make it as much as 10% faster.
- Run a heating pipe under the larger windows, that stops them from fogging up in the cold,
- Not the prettiest, but put the front windows of the pilot house slanting forward, you have much less glare and the windows stay clear when it rains.
- Consider running a coolant pipe between the metal deck and the insulation, you can use the engine to heat the deck and frozen spray and snow will disappear very quickly, basically use your deck as a radiator rather then using sea water to cool the coolant.
- Insulate all the window frames to avoid condensation,
- When using openable deck hatches for ventilation mount one inside and one outside. The dead space between the hatches will insulate and prevent condensation while still remaining openable and still letting light in.
- No furling staysail and no furling mainsail, these ice up in spray and are rendered useless on such days which means you can't take sail away,
- Keep halyards and reefing lines by the mast as the lead blocks back to the cockpit will freeze and you won't be able to lower or reef your sails,
- Choose all equipment such that you can operate everything and anything with gloves on. Windlass remote for example, take one with large buttons, have binoculars that are glove operable, have clutches that work with gloves, jack lines and tethers that can be operated with gloves etc.
- Insulate the hell out of the cabin sole, that is the single largest source of heat loss in the summer in the Arctic,
- Add circulation pipes for warm air. I use flexible ducting with a silent PC cooling fan that very slowly blows warm air from near the sealing to just above the floor to keep the floor warm. Instead in-floor heating would even be a lot better,
- Make sure you have proper drain pipes on all systems that contain water. In case of a cold spell you can drain water out of systems in parts of the boats that are not in use if you have reduced number of people on board,
- Consider tying your heating system into the engine cooling loop. This allows you to pre-heat the engine, extending it's life significantly and reduce maintenance at the same time,
- Use heavier anchors and chain as recommended, cold air is heavier and creates therefore more pressure for the same wind speed, this increases the load on mooring lines and anchor gear,
- Use mooring lines that do not absorb water, they will stay somewhat flexible when it freezes,
- use dyneema ropes everywhere as they also retain less water than polyester ropes and therefore remain a little more flexible when it is cold,
- Choose a deck stepped mast. A keel stepped mast is a huge cold-radiator in the interior and any form of insulation around it makes it a lot harder to inspect the collars and turn buckles under deck. Also the rubber seals that make the mast - deck ring connection water tight do not like the cold and will leak in no time.
- water makers don't like cold water and loose most of their capacity. If you decide to use a water maker you need to take extra capacity in mind to compensate for that,
- Use a sat-compass for navigation and auto-pilot, it is a lot more reliable than a flux gate or other magnetic compass. This due to the weak magnetic aiming force in the high latitudes and the large iron deposits you have int he mountains in Greenland and Canada, a lot of magnetic anomalies exist there,
- Have a small anchor onboard as an ice anchor, we often moor to an ice sheet and a small anchor is easy to use. A 10kg bruce on a rope is perfect to tie to an ice sheet. I often use an axe to hit a little edge in the ice, a couple of centimeters deep is already plenty. Put the toe of the anchor against the little ridge and you can tie a 100ft boat to that 10kg anchor.
- When using long ropes for shore lines, use dyneema. you get away with a diameter that is a lot smaller, you don't need the stretch on such a long distance, it is very abrasive resistant, it does not take any water in, it floats and it is easy to clean. It will save a lot of space and weight onboard and works much easier. I have a couple of 3m and 5m pieces of chain that i can put around a rock and which I connect the shore line to with a normal D-shackle. I used to use the long nylon or polyester ropes, but am so happy that I discovered the advantages of dyneema! it makes a hell of a difference.
- Use fire hose around every place where a mooring line or anchor rode is touching any part of the boat. Abrasion or chafe goes a lot faster on cold and stiff ropes.

Some ethics rules to keep in mind:
- Always use biodegradable soaps and detergents in the cold waters, these waters the life in those waters is much more prone to damage due to non biodegradable ,
- Don't buy fresh produce in remote arctic towns, stores are net set up for cruising boats and stores often get supplied less than once every two weeks. These stores are for the local people, don't steal their food, not even if you pay for it
- Don't use antifouling anymore, polar eco systems are very fragile and need all the help they can get to survive, don't add poison to the water. Sailing through ice will keep the hull clean

[TeddieBear]

Interesting list !
Also think ventilation is as important as insulation. Condensation can be a real pain.

It certainly adds weight but large fuel tanks are required for heating and some power autonomy, in addition to frequent motoring, if you want to stay longer than a short "vacations" time.

You haven't mentioned appendages and any ability to dry out or just get to shallow areas where large bergs cannot ?


An interesting boat : Nanuq - the boat
lifting boards, kick-up twin rudders, aluminum hull



went up to 82 north, over-wintered twice ...




I also believed twin props do not seem appropriate for ice navigation being exposed on the hull sides,
however when you look at Skip Novak's new Pelagic boat for a Chilean friend
he seems to like the idea ? : https://www.kmy.nl/yachts/pelagic-77/

video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=V-zE-uNWs4Q

[Erik de Jong]

Ventilation is indeed important. Though condensation is not really a problem when you use the convection type heaters. Condensation will only occur on cold surfaces like window frames etc. Extra attention need to be paid to those. I have heat exchangers on my vents, the air that goes out is cooled by the air that comes in. That way you loose a lot less heat and save about 10 to 14% on heating fuel.

I know Nanuq, I met the boat a few years ago. They do about the same stuff that we do with the boat, except that we push a bit harder and further when in the ice. The amount of appendages would be way to much for me, you need to pay constant attention to the things that stick out, they are much more vulnerable, they slow you down and have in my opinion no added benefit.

Drying out could be nice on occasions, but I have never truly needed it. I have sailed about 120.000 miles in the Arctic from which 80.000 with my current boat. That one has a fixed keel with a little over 10' draft. That has never been an issue and it made the boat about 5 ton lighter compared to a centerboard variation, that is something you feel in the sailing capabilities as well as fuel consumption when motoring.

An important one I erroneously left out on my list is sailing upwind capabilities. About 30 to 35% of the distance in the high latitudes is sailing upwind, make sure your boat is good at it.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by TeddieBear

. . . You haven't mentioned appendages and any ability to dry out or just get to shallow areas where large bergs cannot ?. . .

Appendages are irrelevant to avoiding bergs. Remember 90% of them are below the surface. Not even the tiniest berg can get into water 3 or 4 or even 6m deep.


Unfortunately in Greenland we practically never had water as shallow as 6m to anchor in -- it was usually 30m or more, not deep enough for a "large berg" to get into, but deep enough for pieces of ice large enough to trap us or rip the anchor out.



I was actually walking up a mountain once, not on the boat, when I saw such a berg drifting towards my anchor. Fortunate that I was in sight and noticed.



I high tailed it out of there, jumped in the dinghy, got the anchor back up.