When a vessel is following an icebreaker through pack ice via a broken channel, what is the primary handling discipline the OOW/Master must maintain?

A. Once an icebreaker has passed through an area, the channel remains open indefinitely with no risk of re-closing behind it

B. Following distance and channel position have no practical bearing on the difficulty of ice the following vessel will encounter

C. The following vessel should always travel well outside the broken channel to avoid the icebreaker's wash, regardless of the harder ice this involves

D. Maintaining a safe following distance and staying accurately within the broken channel the icebreaker has created, since ice at the channel edges (or ice that has begun to close back in behind the icebreaker) is far more resistant than the freshly broken channel itself — straying from the channel risks the vessel encountering significantly harder, unbroken ice than the icebreaker's passage was calculated to manage

A. Following distance has no meaningful safety trade-off; any distance is equally safe regardless of ice conditions

B. Following too closely risks collision with the icebreaker if it slows or stops suddenly (e.g. encountering a particularly difficult ice ridge), while following too far back risks the broken channel beginning to close in behind the icebreaker before the following vessel reaches that section, exposing it to harder ice than intended — the appropriate distance depends on ice conditions, vessel manoeuvrability, and communication with the icebreaker, not a single fixed rule

C. Following too far back is always safer than following too closely, with no risk of the channel closing in over that distance

D. Following too closely is always safer than following too far back, with no countervailing collision risk to consider

A. Ice always assists a turning manoeuvre by providing additional resistance that helps pivot the vessel more efficiently than open water would allow

B. Turning in ice is mechanically identical to turning in open water, with no additional risk or difficulty

C. Turning difficulty in ice depends solely on engine power and has no relationship to hull form or ice thickness

D. Turning pushes the hull sideways against ice rather than along the vessel's normal fore-and-aft direction of travel, which the hull and propulsion are typically less well suited to manage — this can increase the risk of ice damage to the hull sides or propeller/rudder, and the vessel may simply be unable to complete the turn if surrounding ice resistance exceeds available power, unlike open water where resistance to turning is comparatively minimal