an ice floe might bring the rig 10 is lowered so that an inwardly sloped ice bending surface 41 bridges the sea surface 12 or extends from above the sea surface 12 down into the water below the sea surface 12 to engage any floating ice that may come upon the rig 10 as best seen in fig4 a the sloped ice bending surface 41 runs from shoulder 42 which is above the sea surface so therefore some considerable distance above the bottom of the hull 20 and near the perimeter of the deck 21 down to neckline 44 the neckline 44 is very near the bottom of the hull or perhaps below the bottom of the hull and spaced inwardly from the shoulder 42 entirely around the perimeter of the hull 20 ice deflector 45 extends downward from neckline 44 either straight down or at some small angle from vertical if the ice deflector 45 is to be angled from the vertical it is preferably angled outwardly thus when an ice floe such as shown at 51 in fig4 a comes to the rig 10 the ice bending surface 41 causes the leading edge of the ice floe 51 to submerge under the sea surface 12 a significant bending force is applied by the weight of the rig 10 on the end of the ice floe against the ice bending surface 41 the flotation force of the water pressing up on the middle of the ice floe and the weight of the ice floe at the end away from the rig 10 ice is less strong against bending then in pure compression such that the ice.