Chickawaukie Ice Boat Club

Sebago will need a few of these very cold days to make something of itself. Alongshore there is 1.5” of ice covered with 3.5” of slush topped with some snow.

Looking east from Nasons Beach with Frye Island in the background right, the main body is grey. The snow extends out about 200 yards.

There might be a chance to go see the grey plate if the inshore mess solidifies in the next few days. Thanks to Curtis Rindlaub for scouting!

In other news, Red Bank and Long Island appear to have a good opportunity for ice this week.

The start of the North Americans have been postponed until tomorrow, but the starting order just goes to show how wacky the world is these days.

Now that we’ve been hammered with snow it’s time to get used to the new normal. Here are some tutorials to help you get started.

Stern Steerer sailing in snow youtu.be

You’ll need a big steerer with the torque of a locomotive.

You can also use a DN as demonstrated by Denis Guertin as long as the wind holds so you don’t need to slog through the snow dragging your boat home:

DN Iceboat on wet snow, Lac St-Francois, Lambton (Quebec) 20-01-2013 youtu.be

And if we get lucky some day and a bit of ice begins to poke through it could be as good as this:

DN Iceboat on Lac St-Francois, Lambton (Quebec) youtu.be

Meanwhile out at the North Americans, the venue has been shifted to Green Lake Wisconsin. Nice ice, snow free, but brutally cold all week. The results will be a question of the survival of the warmest. Our sympathies go out to the Jones brothers of Florida.

According to a reliable skater who heard it from the General Store, Sebago froze last night. There were light winds and sub zero temps over night, so it does sound plausible. With light wind ahead of the snow storm it will not blow out, but the snow will probably depress it, wet out the entire stack, turn to smooth grey ice and build strength and thickness all week.

Could be epic.

Racing is due to start Sunday for the North American DN Championship. Seventy-four sailors have signed up; mostly North Americans, but a sprinkling of Swedes and a portion of Poles have made the leap across the pond to join in.
As we prepare for yet another insult to our ice, it appears that the regatta site at Syracuse, Indiana will be just at the northern marge of the storm. They might only get a bit of snow, but the brutal temps that will follow will be challenging. Generally, racing will not take place in less than ten degrees, especially in strong winds.
We have a good New England contingent and wish them, as well as all the others, the best of luck.

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The New England Champs are in the bag, we’re shoveling snow and looking at a bleak week. But Bob Strezelewicz and the gang have had a great run on Quabog; here it is in his own words:

Hi Bill
I would like to be a weatherman, they can’t tell you what is coming 12 hours away.
Friday gave us the best ice of the season, you could have sailed in a fart, but we had 25 to 30 it was quite fast.
Saturday we got up to 1 inch of snow and no wind, so we did what ice sailors do, stand around and wait for wind.
About 11 the wind gods came to us,we set up and started sailing in 10 mile of wind , then the snow came,so hard it was a whiteout.
Sailed for an hour and the wind quit,not like this has never happened before.Now the fun of putting gear away in 3 inches of wet snow.
GOD i love this sport.
Bob S

So it’s tune up and repair time. Bob Scribner, builder of Whizz #34, is mounting his chocks and has borrowed the CIBC alignment triangles. He is in South Portland, so if anyone in the area needs to check and correct alignment, contact Bob and use the triangles.

scribner Bob <gb36.721@gmail.com>

Just be sure they find their way home to Camden.

There is good ice under that snow.