Chickawaukee Sunday Jan 28 was as nice ice as we have seen in sometime, but too much wind. The “Old farts” and guests had a fine time, some brisk sailing but not really enjoyable for all day the fire side bench saw heavy use. Bill Bunting insisted that I try ballasting my Super DN. I dropped a 20 Lb snake in the cockpit and, as advertized, the addition of this tiddly weight to the 100Lb boat was amazing. Dennis Glidden came up from Southern Maine with his well used “Grey Ghost DN, he and Don Stearns have had epic voyages on Sebago in past years. I asked him if he had his storm sail? “Nope, don’t have one, when the window on my full sail (criscrossed with duct tape) blows out then I will”. Al Heath, new member, sailed his ancient rickety looking iceboat ancestor of the Alcort Sailfish/Sunfish in the heavy air with and without passengers. Nothing bent and nothing broke. What holds the thing together is a mystery, it works just fine. We have a new member Zander Aurbach who thinks a replica of it would be an interesting low cost project. We await further developments. It us just a lumber yard wood A frame, wood runners with angle iron blades, aluminum tube spars, some permanently bent. Super simple. Sort of a wood Skimmer with sailfish sail/lateen? rig.
In the meantime Jory and Lloyd explored Damariscotta, wall to wall washboard surface on 8 inches of ice. The usual pressure ridge system off the the right is just healed cracks. A couple of days of warm wind and rain might fix it right up for next weekend. The outlook depends on how much snow in the mix.