Falling ice from tuna tower....

[hyperfishing]

Ok, so what do you northern boaters with tuna towers do? Seems to me that falling ice could rip right through a canvas half tower top, and perhaps crack the fiberglass all over the boat when it falls, break off radar units etc ?????

Or, does it bounce right off the tough Hatteras shell, and punch a hole in passing Volkswagens instead?

I'd be worried about this issue if leaving the boat up north in the winter.

[SportFishCruising]

Why? Do you drive a Volkswagen?

[Genesis]

VWs can take it.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh0ZsehhJHk

[sgharford]

That's a sick VW commercial - leave it to the Germans to come up with something like that, gotta love their sense of humor.

[Boatsb]

The easiest way to prevent falling ice from the tower is cup holders.

[REBrueckner]

well of course one thing you can do is have it covered or wrap it yourself in the inexpensive blue poly Home Cheapo material....

[ron6785]

A suggestion is not to be where there's no ice, when there's ice.

[Bob Bradley]

A few years ago I was pushing the season a bit, fishing for blackfish in mid-Dec. It had just snowed, so we shoveled out the cockpit and the foredeck, and headed out. Everything was ok until the sun started melting the snow on the hardtop and raining ice water on us, so we called it a season and headed for the barn. The real problem was for my buddy who was dutifully picking up the cockpit and stowing the gear when I put the coals to the boat. The bow lifted, and an avalance the size of my hardtop slid off and inundated him with wet sloppy slush. I don't think I stopped laughing all the way in to the dock.

[StratPlan61]

Its not a problem up here 'in the Lakes', you can't get here with a tuna tower unless you arrive through the St Lawrence Seaway. You don't need one anyway, we've trained the northern fish to jump out of the water so ya' just have to net 'em or scoop 'em, no fishing required.

[hyperfishing]

I see lots of sportsfish with towers, well a FEW anyway, up north in the winter season. Always wondered about the falling ice issue. Never seen a tower wrapped in a tarp.

I LOVED the VW commercial. Seems the Germans aren't too keen on terrorists either, check out this British series...

http://www.google.com/search?q=monkey+dust+terrorists&btnGNS=Search+youtube.com&oi=navquery_searchbox&sa=X&as_sitesearch=youtube.com&hl=en&rlz=1T4SNYC_enUS324US323

[SportFishCruising]

Would that be on the north east coast?
Towers aren't wanted/needed on the Great Lakes or the true North because of the bridges, as StratPlan1 points out and our fishing techniques don't need them because we go for a different species of fish. Boats are generally shrinkwrapped on the hard with blue plastic to keep ice/snow off a fine yacht and liveaboards shrink wrap with a clear plastic & wood door/framed for that greenhouse effect to keep warm. There is the odd smaller tower used and most do not include that in the shrink wrap because of the expense which makes them really unsightly after a few seasons.
Scuse my attempt at humour with my 1st post to your thread...lol ;)

[hyperfishing]

Currently in the northeast and really would like to know from tower equipped owners, does ice falling off a thirty foot high tuna tower, damage the boat?

Wifey loves towers, and sprints up them with great joy, even if slippery wet (Mark the Shark's boat), go figure! I would rather be the one in the fighting chair anyway. She really wants a tower equipped boat, but I worry about the ice falling issues, bridges, and inability to shove it in a shed for the winter. I will agree with her that they look way cool though.

We have looked at a variety of 55+ Hats, and her first question is frequently "can you put a tower on it." Geez!

She insisted on a gofast that we currently have, and initially I was dead set against it, but it turned out to be the right boat for us for over ten years. So, she seems to have a better grasp of what we need than I do.