Today was big wind on big ice: big speeds. Monster gusts in the morning cleared to pits of all but the bored and stupid, who hung around getting blown around and froze to the bone. But there’s something about full sun even with temps in the teens that temps those with the greed for speed.
During a luff we convinced ourselves that maybe it wasn’t so bad after all and if we just rigged up and poked our bows out we could always come back in. Besides, having the pits downwind from most of the lake means that sailing wreckage home would be easy.
The snow had been blowing off all night, but that which remained was compacting into drifts. Dry drifts, but still a bit of a brake when you hit the big ones. Our bows poked further and further until they were well north of Hoyt. A massive peel off catapulted us down the east side on some lovely ice at free-fall speed.
Two DN’s and a pair of Whizz cooked the lake until late afternoon, thankfully before boats or men failed.

Tomorrow will be tamer winds.Our Warner St. Clair award winner Milo Fleming will be there with his new Chad Atkins supplied DN. Chad will be there too, so some race training and mark rounding will be the activity of the day. Milo has managed to convince his school principal to accept iceboating as an official school sport, so now he can blow off a Monday and come practice. Sure beats bouncing a ball around a sweaty gym!

Any DN sailors are welcome to show up and run laps!