BoatBanter.com - View Single Post - Arctic Icebreaker Suffers Hull Damage in Alaska

Califbill

Keyser Söze wrote:
On 7/14/15 11:46 AM, wrote:
On Tue, 14 Jul 2015 11:05:38 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

Thankfully the ones encountered on the ICW from the Carolinas' downward
are nice soft sand. Don't ask how I know. There's one place though
... called "the Rock Pile" ... where you have to be very careful. When
we went through heading south there was a beautiful 50 something foot
Sportsfish up on the bank with a huge hole in it's hull.

That is true until you get to the keys. Then you start seeing those
coral heads that may be a couple feet underwater. They will do a job
on shafts struts and wheels.
Up in Alaska it seems everything is rock of some kind. Tin boats and
jet drives are very popular.

I've often wondered how much bottom abuse those alum boats can take.

Depends on the boat. Mine is 3/16 bottom, and does have some dents. The
bigger boats are 1/4" and take lots of abuse. Worse is like in the Rogue
River, as the rock shelves are sharp, so slice the boat.