The AB in the photo is using the electric demo hammer. To use a chainsaw, make cuts across ice masses like the vertical mass in the left of the photo, parallel or diagonal to the deck. Then use the demo hammer or spuds to clear out the solid between the cuts. Like using a saw and chisel to clear out mortises in wood. Using both tools is the key.
The demo hammers don’t like spongy ice. The bit just busts a hole through and gets bogged in… They work fine on hard ice though.
Electric chainsaws are best. They lay round for years without use, and old fuel is bad fuel. Every year in January we have to run an inspection for deicing tools, in anticipation of icing season, and I’m surprised how many tools go missing/are rusted up.
We’ve had the same experience. It’s a destructive process, and each captain has to decide how far he wants to go with it re: damage to the boat. Things that can’t take punishment, like the hydraulic valves in the cargo-gear driving stations on our boats, have custom tarps that go over the pipe cages protecting the station. The tarp gets destroyed in the deicing process, but the stuff inside has little ice covering, if you’re lucky.
In icing weather our crews haul in the exterior fire hoses and life-rings. They’re useless if buried in ice. The exterior hydrants are drained. And the OOW has to keep an eye on the EPIRB, in case that starts getting buried. Nothing you can really do about the liferafts, except hope the leeward one is OK.
The other big danger I neglected to mention in icing on our boats is falling ice. As soon as the weather begins to warm and the ice thaws, ice starts falling from the masts and rigging, in big pieces…