The latest from John Sperr of the HRIYC:
Word just in from Bob Wills who is in Red Bank —
Racing has been called of for Saturday because of the threat of very high winds and the extreme arctic cold.
Maybe Sunday, maybe Monday — we shall see.
This weekend the Navesink Ice Boat Club is hosting the Hudson River Ice Yacht Club to compete for the Van Nostrand Cup at Red Bank. Not sure which classes but there are bound to be some big stern steerers. Last time this was held was 2015 with the mighty Jack Frost and Rocket. If you are anywhere close this will be a show not to be missed.
Regarding the calendars in the previous post, the pdf’s are at the bottom. Just click and print.
John Ziermann put together these wonderful iceboat calendars for 2026. It’s not too late to print one out and put it to work.
The Ice Queen says that the snow won’t amount to much on Sebago on Saturday. Nice breeze Sunday and Monday.
Stand by for snow report.
I recall when I when I built my first Gougeon wedge DN iceboat in 1988 or so. Racing was what we did for the most part. The CIBC had these competitions:
Linc Davis
Maine State Championship
Commodores Cup
Sebago Open
NE Spring Classic
I have been attempting to collect the years that these were raced, with the results. I have much of them on paper just so we have the history recorded somehow. John Stanton and I attempted to get the results that I collected onto our iceboat.me website, but we lost the transferred data the first time, so I plan to try again especially if others communicate to me that it matters. I suppose that most will be thinking who cares? But we will see, some members may care and let me know.
The reason I started this is that we do have ice, and we have not had a race this season. The Linc Davis is traditionally the first race, on the first race ready ice. We have a large sheet of black ice on Sebago Lake, and I believe the last Sebago Open was raced in 2015, and won by Bill Bucholz, so we know where that trophy is. The last Maine State Championship was 2017, and I happen to have that baby on my shelf.
So, all you DN racer types, please communicate and let me know if racing on Sebago sounds as good to you as it does to me. I plan to head out tomorrow and see how the access is at Nason’s beach.
Dave, 4690
In a previous post leading up to the two days of sailing at lake Sebago someone used the word “epic”. It should have been EPIC!. Achingly beautiful ice, great wind both days, lots of sailors incredulous at finding themselves on such a plate at this time of year with most of New England snowed out.
Eight inches of clear black ice extended over the horizon. There were a few pressure ridges, but easy to spot with a number of good crossings.
Skaters and skate sailors easily outnumbered iceboats; our hope is that all those gung-ho young folks will find their way into an iceboat eventually.
The boundary between grade ten and grade one:
One could follow along this marge, doing a circumnavigation of the bklack ice and covering about 25 miles in the process.
Right behind these three boats is the end of the black stuff, about half way down the Frye Island shore.
The MIT Iceboating Team came out of hibernation for their fist outing in years. Five students sailed for the first time, all undergrads with more winters ahead. Thanks to Professor John Brisson for making it happen, and Thatcher Chamberlain, one of the founding members of the club now back for grad school, for helping to organize.
There is no wind forecast for the next few days aside from a potential small puff on Wednesday. But the ice will be there until the next snow; just to go for a long walk with cleats skritching and the sun shining will warm the heart of any icehound.
Chickawaukie Ice Boat Club 