We need help from Chickawaukie Ice Boat Club members.  The NEIYA has been asked to help solve a mystery involving the type, age, provenance, usage and ownership of an aircraft fuselage-style metal-skinned iceboat found in the basement of a bank building in Bridgeport, CT in 1990. The bank staff had no knowledge of the boat or how it came to be located in the basement. The boat is part of the non-public small boat research collection of the Mystic Seaport, located in the Rossi Mill building across the street from the north entrance to the Seaport. The collection will be viewable during the Wooden Boat Show June 29 to July 1 and is available for private viewing at other times. The collection includes two Great South Bay Scooters and two other iceboats in addition to the Mystery Ship.

The metal boat in question is 18’ 3” long, 4’ 4” wide and is made of heavy timber strakes supporting a wood frame sheathed in tin in the rear and fabric-covered aluminum in the front. It appears to be a stern steerer. In one of the pictures, a possible (double) runner can be seen. The purpose of the large steel ‘A frame’ atop the bow is unknown, but is presumably related to the rigging. The plank is an aluminum strut with a foil shape. There are four additional metal struts from 8’ to 13’ long. Note that in the pictures, the bottom of the boat is unsheathed. No sails were found with the boat. An examiner in 1995 noted that the construction and materials used suggested that the builder might have had experience with aircraft and suggested a build date in the 1920s or 1930s. Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. has been located near Bridgeport since 1929.

A major effort was made by the Seaport in the mid 1990s to learn more about this iceboat, with no luck. Hopefully the collective knowledge base represented by the NEIYA membership will produce a happy outcome. Please send a link to this article to your friends in other iceboat clubs. Reply to me with any questions or suggestions and I will summarize the responses at a later date.

Peter N. H. Burrow
NEIYA Treasurer

Please drop me a note below if you have any information or click to leave a Reply here.

I was there on that crystal black ice of plymouth

I was there those many magic days on megunticook:

and….most amazing of all, I was there on those fantastic adventures on damariscotta:

when howling winds blew snow streamers across pressure ridges which changed before your eyes…..and yet moments later… we snuggled in the lee of Deep Cove, in a peaceful silent world:

today…..here i sit in the bright april backyard sun…..hoping for a little tan…..finishing the last of last christmas’s rum bottle….unable to accomplish the slightest thing….and I look back on our 2012 season…..and that icy environment….those friends…those zen-like moments….and…. if it’s true….if it really happened….then I am flooded with gratitude…..there can’t be very many people in this hurried, degraded world ….who are allowed entrance into such sacred space….

see you tomorrow…..jory

Notice the simple set-up: he chooses a nice straight 2×6, lays out the centerline and squares off the bulkhead positions with cleats or short aluminum angle. Then its just a matter of screwing on the bulkheads, wrapping the stringers around and checking for twist before planking. Steve has decided to use butt blocks on the planks instead of scarfs. Either way is strong enough, but the butt blocks are easier and add a little bulk to the sides which could come in handy some extreme day.

The butt block is clearly visible on the boat on the left. There’s a long span between those bulkheads, but if one were seriously watching their weight a scarf would work, too.

There is a combination of butts and scarfs on our next featured craft. I used butts on the planks and scarfed the bottom. The side planks were set onto the bottom, which ran by temporarily, and the thought of trying to get a dead straight line on a 24′ plank that would fit tight all along didn’t seem like much fun to me. Just moving the thing around was asking for trouble. As you can see, the planking is done, bottom trimmed, and the interior varnished in preparation for the deck. Two of the three deck panels have their veneer glued on, and we’re just waiting for a window between paying work to continue.

Fitting the aft deck. The battens screwed along the edge keep the 1/8″ ply straight, and will make glueing it down very easy once the veneer is on.

While it was rolled over to have the bottom edge trimmed, it seemed like a good time to install the bow headstay chainplate, along with the tangs for whisker stays. This boat has them both fore and aft.

The backing blocks for the aft whisker stay tangs can be seen just behind the aft bulkhead.

As always, please send in anything of interest as these boats will be done at some point and we don’t want to be reduced to reporting on yet another coat of varnish so please get out there, cut some wood, and tell us about it!

The seat is in place, as is the steering. The cheek blocks will be on the bottom, of course. The slotted bracket is so you can raise the wheel to get in and then drop it down on your lap for sailing. I don’t know if there is supposed to be a latch to hold it in a few different position, but it might be a good idea. Any suggestions?

The aft end of the double ended sheet comes through this bulkhead to the skipper and is belayed with a rope clutch hooked up to a foot pedal for quick release, all mounted on the bulkhead. With 150 sq. ft.of sail on a 14′ plank the hiking must come on rather quickly. Anybody have an idea for engineering that?

The 24′ hull just goes on and on…

But this year the inkeeper there, a reliable spy, reports that the ice is so battered, the forecast so tropical, that we might as well get out the gardening tools.

So, with many a sigh, I’ve hoisted the exalted iceboat high, high in the garage–wondering, hoping, even praying, that health and circumstance will bring in down next November. I am reminded of my friend Anita Scott, an avid winter-sportswoman, who often says: “if you’re not having fun at a given season, you just don’t have the right toys” … how blessed we are to have the right toys.

To cap the season, to give thanks, to celebrate our community, to kick-tires, to swap gear, to compare notes, we’ll have our Spring Ice Party on Saturday, April 14 at the usual loosey-goosey hours of about 10 to 4. Bring a pot luck item, and sample Bill Bunting’s (wife’s!) amazing apple pie, possibly Fortier’s grilling specialites, Lloyd’s salads, and, of course, the luck of the pot… Bring excess ice gear, too….Bill Buchholz may show off his eco-car Dirigo, and Jory may pedal his electric-assist quadricycle, Sunbeam.

This year, as a special treat, we’re celebrating our oldest CIBC member Fred Wardwell, now high in his 8th decade, by allowing him to be our host…. I hope you can all come….a map will follow when we can figure it out…..all the best, jory

The Whizz has proven to be a very fast and comfortable boat. The rig design by Jeff Brown is excellent. We look forward to more of these boats, now up to five in number. These two are for Steve and Peter Coward who are getting a little tired of James sailing circles around them.

Whizzes #4 & 5 taking shape at Steve Lamb’s shop. Paul Zucco’s is in frame, and we look forward to photos soon Paul!

Below is the Mono XV. The bottom has yet to be trimmed back. Anyone know where I can find a pair of four foot runners?

We welcome all building and repair pix, hoping to make this post a weekly event.