FROM THE USE WHAT YOU GOT FILE: MELTING THE ICE

Last season I bought an Angle Clamp that I planned to use to repair some joinery on board. The winter did not allow for any work on board. Though a blizzard blew enough snow through the cockpit hatches to fill the bilge with ice:

When the temperature finally reached the mid 50 degree range I was hoping that some of this ice would have melted a bit so I could start to remove it. Unfortunately, it was still a pretty solid block of ice, I took out the heat gun and tried to start melting  some of it. It did start to melt but, holding the heat gun for any length of time was tiring. So I looked around to see if I could use something that would hold the heat gun while I used a wet dry vac to start removing the melted water. The Angle Clamp looked promising:


I clamped the handle of the Heat Gun in the clamp and laid the clamp across the bilge opening. It worked somewhat but the heat gun drooped and was not directed onto the top of the ice. Since the heat gun can cause damage to wood and fiberglass if the heat is directly applied to them I needed to make sure  I could direct the heat to the areas where the ice was prevalent.  Looking around I saw one of the fiberglass fishing wire poles I use to occasionally fish electrical wires on board. I placed it across the bilge opening and under the handle of the heat gun. It allowed me to perfectly direct the heat onto the top of the ice while removed the melting water:

It worked great. I managed to remove about twelve gallons of the melted ice water over the course of a few hours. ONE NOTE OF CAUTION: I would not leave the heat gun on while unattended and also make sure keep it away from any combustible parts of the boats structure.