Cheapskates are set up on Chickawaukee at Lloyd’s beach. Doug Raymond plans to set up marks for Cheapskate and DN scratch racing over the next few days. We are getting spies on the elusive and never sailed Lake Cobbosocontee, near Augusta. Moosehead apparently is very smooth and lovely. Megunticook, as we’ve seen, is what it is, and will be sailed tomorrow by the might A Skeeter designed by Ray Ruge. ( remember the cool aerodynamic red boat from a summer post?)

Jordan Bay was awarded an solid 6 today, and chosen as an alternate sight for the DN worlds. The primary site will probably be called on for Kingston Ontario, but stand by for the official word later tonight. There is a tricky pressure ridge in the usual place which became very active while we were out sailing in the main part of the bay. We had to tip-toe back along the shore with the outboard runner submerged in order to get to the pits.

The breeze came in at about 5mph and just stayed there all day. Never altered speed or direction. Oddly enough, it was out of the south-east, but what a pleasure to get the boat wound up to maybe 15mph and then just cruise. It was a good day for a cam cleat. More interesting ice activity was this hole:

Its like a trap door opened specifically for an ice boat, and hard to see with all the different textures. Fortunately all this mess was inshore; the body of the bay is tight.

Your CIBC guy had just come from giving a talk on iceboats and iceboating to a group at MIT. And almost as a parody of itself, when I pulled into an alley I found myself alongside the large glass doors of the aerospace and rocket engine shop. Inside there was a guy sitting at a bank of three computers, flying a drone! It was a very flat and stealthy unit, and seeing it buzz around models of turbines and rocket engines was mind blowing. I knocked on the door to ask directions to my lecture hall, and he brought it down for a smooth landing.

I found my lecturees, and we hauled the DN up a few flights of steps and down the hall.

About fifty members of the Outing Club showed up, seemed to be very interested, asked all kinds of technical questions, and began to formulate plans to get a couple of boats for the club. They were especially fascinated with the concept of apparent wind. Most were non-sailors, but they grasped concepts very quickly. They are, of course, the cream of the world’s engineering crop. So keep an eye out for student types prowling the pits in coming weeks and get them into a boat! What better place to plant the seeds of iceboating.

Lastly, is there anyone going to the Worlds who could bring back a mast for Bill Grernier on Sebago? Even if it could be brought back somewhere in New England. Check in with him here: William Grenier