Lynden helps Mythbusters investigate ice boat myth

Lynden companies have been featured in several TV programs over the past year. In February, it was Alaska Marine Trucking and Lynden Transport’s turn.

The hosts of the popular program Mythbusters traveled to Ketchikan as part of the Discovery Channel’s Alaska Week series. They set out to explore the myth that a seaworthy ship can be built of ice, or more specifically, pykrete, which is water mixed with sawdust or wood pulp and frozen.

The producers zeroed in on Ketchikan which has ice-free waters in January and a high school with a wood shop where they could work. Since the average temperature at that time of year is 38 degrees, a freezer truck was needed to keep the construction materials and the boat frozen.

According to Alaska Marine Trucking General Manager Dan Kelly, customers referred the Mythbusters to Lynden. “Our customers know we can handle just about anything or figure out a way to make it happen. The show producers were looking for a way to freeze and transport the boat they were trying to build,” he says. “They wanted to construct the boat at the high school, but they didn’t have the proper electrical capabilities for our equipment, and they needed the maximum width they could get in a trailer.”

The solution was Lynden Transport’s new 34-foot diesel/electric refrigerated trailers. Two of them were barged up from Seattle for use in the program.

“The fun part was, as the plan developed and changed, we would get calls from the producer and we were always able to accommodate the changes,” Dan says. “It was the same satisfaction we get from solving the challenges our customers bring to us each week throughout Alaska.”

To simulate pykrete, the boat was built out of frozen, laminated newspapers at Ketchikan High School. Students were recruited to unfold 2000-plus pounds of the Ketchikan Daily News and other publications and dunk them in tubs of water. The design was a Carolina skiff, a flat-bottomed boat that allows you to plane with relatively little horsepower. The mold was started by making a platform for the bottom—an enclosed box of 2 x 10s and 3/4-inch plywood about 8 feet wide and 20 feet long.

When finished, the ice boat was trucked from the high school to the Alaska Marine Trucking yard. While the boat was in cold storage in the Lynden Transport reefer, the team mounted an outboard motor and installed steering, a gas tank, a battery and running lights. Two days later, the truck was driven to a breakwater. The boat slid into the water and bobbed around like a normal boat.

Was the myth busted? Though the boat managed to float and stay intact at speeds of up to 23 mph, it quickly began to spring leaks and dissolve. In the end, the boat only lasted 20 minutes. Though the boat worked, it would be highly impractical to carry out the original myth, which predicted that an entire aircraft carrier could be built out of pykrete. The Mythbusters agreed to settle on a “plausible but ludicrous” conclusion. To see reruns of the episode, go to www.discoverychannel.com.