I just watched the Opie shows where they spent hours chipping ice off the boat. I remember chipping ice in the North Atlantic 40 years ago, on a destroyer. It is brutal hard work. Aircraft also have problems with ice, and they use pneumatic "boots" on the leading edges of the wings that crack the ice off in flight. Why don't they use something like that on their cranes and some of the flat parts of the boat and superstructure?

The technology is pretty simple. The boots are basically rubber bladders, and compressed air is forced in, expanding the bladder to crack the ice off the wing. The boots puff up and then the air lets out and the ice flys off the wing. They could use their hydraulic system instead of compressed air.

You would think that one of the boats out of Seattle would have reached out to Boeing for a solution....

I can't say whether or not what you're talking about would work, but I absolutely thought the same thing when I watched them hammer at the ice. There must be a better way! That looks like the most back-breaking task of all.

A much more simple and durable solution would be to put electric heater coils in the hollow metal tubing used throughout the boat for rails, etc. Power for these could be taken from a generator run by the boats engine. It wouldnt take much current to bring the metal to a relatively warm temperature of about 40-50 degrees. Any ice that formed could easily be sluffed off instead of needing to be hammered.

Exactly. All those de-icing and trace heating systems cost money. Ain't nothin in this world as greedy as a crab boat owner. The crew[slaves] are on board. They're going to get paid. If they ain't fishin they can chop ice. Seriously it would cost a lot of money to install de-icing systems on a boat. There are only a few days a year when icing is a problem. It's cheaper to have the crew work their butts off for a few days then spend all that money.

Sig said in one of his interviews that somebody had come up with a railing heating system -- I forget what happened, but hot water + cold air = too much rust.