Chickawaukie Ice Boat Club

Just to update the HardWay results, another four boats finished the course late in the afternoon. A few of the stragglers that this group shepherded home were running under bare poles. So with seven boats completing the 2021 HardWay, it is officially in the books. Congratulations to the finishers, as well to those who gave it their best shot. We all learned something last Monday, no doubt. Official stats coming from NEIYA soon.

On the long windward bash from Parker to Welsh, this writer was contemplating those light air days where we live and die by the telltales, chasing the elusive gusts and breaking out in a sweat from so much running. That’s just about what we had on Lake Chickawaukee this morning. A DN is a great boat for dozing in the sun waiting for wind. But after lunch the sea breeze kicked in. There were white caps on Penobscot Bay, and Chickie felt the force. The ice stayed hard well into the afternoon in spite of temps in the fifties so we did fast laps up and down the lake in thin gloves and open coats. We’d have set up marks but most of the boats had had enough by then and missed the best of it.

We made a pilgrimage to Robert’s Beach, site of countless campfires and pots of beans. Lloyd came down to chat. He was considering coming out of retirement for a sail or two next season. Seeing his old sail number still in service tugged at his heartstrings, he said.

Bill Bunting, Bob MacEwen and Joel Tompkins came down with their boats but decided just to sit in the sun and take it all in instead of setting up. It was a fine day for that, too.

But come Friday, it looks like we’ll get a shot at Lake St. George. That fire breathing dragon in the sky has yet to slay good old George, and Friday promises buckets of wind; a good thing on a convoluted lake like this one. Stand by for confirmation tomorrow.

Bob MacEwen and Joel Tompkins romped around Muscongus Bay today. His report:

I sailed at Vannah Rd today with one of my eighty year old friends, Joel Tomkins. He built his own Cheapskate and sailed it today for only the second time.The first time was last Saturday at the farm on Damariscotta. The conditions were excellent today with at least grade 6 ice and steady 7 to 10 mph NW winds. We sailed from 10AM until 3PM when the wind quit. The launch could only be done at the west end of the causeway where there was about fifty feet of shoreline with attached ice. The ramp is not useable with a good 10 feet of water from the shore to any ice. I sailed out as far as the cove with the red shed where ate lunch last a week or so ago. There were open cracks further north so I did not venture any further. The ice up to that point was hard and without any open cracks or pressure ridges. Tomorrow will probably be the last day if anyone wants to sail there. I am planning to sail at Chicawaukee tomorrow. I am guessing that you will be launching at the public beach and not at Lloyd’s house. (correct, ed.) God I love this sport!

News from Jim Turner on Mt. Desert:

“Four boats sailed Eagle Lake today with better than expected wind. Ice stayed hard but the surface was somewhat lunar. Cheapskate clocked 37 mph over the bumps.”

Similar surface scouted on Chickawaukee this afternoon. Very hard surface in full sun at 35 degrees. Launch ramp a bit dodgy, but ok for DN’s walking the plank. 12″ found on the snow ice just off the ramp. 7.5-8.5″ thick directly out from the turnout 150-450′. Hole stayed dry the whole way down; not a drop of seepage. Hard grey ice.

Anyone interested in racing around marks tomorrow? Nice SW sea breeze building in the afternoon. Temps to hit forty, but the ice appears to be of such a quality that it might not slush out. But if it does we’ll sit in the sun, take the boats slowly apart and reminice over what a long, strange season it’s been.

Text to 975-6980 if you’re coming. Thanks.

Results are still coming in, but in spite of the big winds and attrition rates we believe it’s in the books. Of thirty boats to start out, three completed the course, including the requisite walk on the beach at Center Harbor. Most of the fleet go to the top and looking downwind decided not to continue. The three who finished had major reservations about the downwind run, but since most of the lines were dead downwind they went for it. After the long bash to windward, coasting along dead downwind at true wind speed with no apparent wind was just sublime. Full sun, no wind, and just the clicity clack of the runners over the nice grey ice.

Rounding up to back over pressure ridges was a rude awakening to the true conditions. It was so windy that once rounded up, the boats could be sailed backwards down to the ridge when the skipper would hit the brake, hop out, and back the boat over. They had set flags at scouted crossings on the way up, and finding those little green beacons of hope on the way back down was comforting. Hopefully the rest of the fleet found them helpful.

The first check point on the way up was Parker Island. Nine boats got there quickly, waited a while for other boats, and when none came chose to designate themselves as a fleet of nine. Welch Island was the next checkpoint and three boats made there in tight formation with no sign of the others. Reflecting that those six could take care of themselves the fleet of three proceeded upwind and completed the Hardway.

There are two, maybe more, items of significance around today’s event. Jim Gagnon’s father was a few years ahead of Leo in the 10th Mountain Division and they knew many of the same men. Today was Jim’s father’s birthday, on the event that might become known as the Healy Hardway. Jim was one of the three to complete the Hardway today. He obviously carries a couple of pints of 10th Mtn blood. Another finisher was Milo Fleming, a fifteen year old from Maine. He’s been sailing just two seasons, starting with a Lockley, moving into a mini DN and then to a full DN. Today was the maiden voyage of his new super DN, Pete Coward’s old Papadoo. He was working on it Sunday up to the very point when it was time to leave for Wolfboro. Classic “night before the races” scenario. Right out of the box, he nailed it. Not only did he complete the Hardway in extreme, borderline conditions, by all accounts he’s the youngest ever to have done it, he also won the coveted CIBC Mile A Minute award just for good measure by clocking 66mph on the blistering reach back into Wolfboro.

So far the only other reported carnage was one of the three J-14s from the slow side of New York State. It over-ran it’s brake and sailed off over the horizon. The semi-shocked skipper was set upon a plank and ferried ashore to Ames Beach. The other two began to search for the boat around Rattlesnake. (Thanks, Charlie, for the warning about the lead at the south end, even though we hadn’t planned on going anywhere near it!)
It took a while but eventually the awol vessel was found plowed into a seawall, the bow runner run right back through the springboard just about to the fuselage.

There’re bound to be more stories, but for now that’s all we know about that.

Tape your pins: Winnipesaukee The Hardway is ON for Monday March 15. Launch at Brewster Beach, Wolfboro, HN. Be in your boat, brake off and shoving off at 10:00am sharp.

See below for history,details and tips.

NEIYA’s Winnipesaukee “The HardWay” Award

By Bob Kilpatrick
The first ice boat trip from Wolfeboro to Center Harbor and return in modern memory was accomplished in 1947 by Leigh Turner’s father, Norman Turner, and Furber Jewett. According to Leigh, both sailed Mead skeeters that they had purchased in the late 1930s. Since there had been ice boats on Winnipesaukee for 50 years or so before that, it is likely that others preceded them. Leigh reports that he and Erik Erikson made their first unofficial lap of the lake in 1971, sailing DNs. Including the first officially-recognized circumnavigation of the big lake, Winnipesaukee, in 1974, there have been fifteen “official” fleets to have accomplished the feat. That first official “Hard Way” fleet was seven boats, sailed by Hal Chamberlain, Don “Doc” Fellows, Stew Hamel, Leo Healy, Paul Healy, Dick Price, and Leigh Turner.

Bill Converse and Bill Fisher made a non-qualifying trip in 1979. In 1985, six years later, a fleet of twenty-four boats in Fleet #2 made a successful loop of the lake. It was in 1985 that formal conditions for a “Hard Way” award were implemented.

As of 2004, 108 skippers have qualified for the coveted “Hard Way” award, most in DNs. The most trips for one skipper is six, accomplished, appropriately, by Hard Way Review Committee Chairman Leo Healy. Chasing Leo’s record total, Dave Burnham and Paul Zucco are the only skippers to have done five qualifying trips. Leo has made the loop four times in his Northeast Class skeeter, and also twice in DNs. Dave and Paul have done all five of their trips in DNs.

Dick Price and Jon Hix are the only four-trippers on the roster. Dick Price has three trips in NE28 and one in his DN. Jon Hix had the distinction of doing it in three entirely different classes of ice boat, first a stern-steerer, then a DN, and the last two in his J-14. Jon’s stern-steerer, “Phantom,” is the only one of its type to have made the course.

Six others have three official loops under their belts: Hal Chamberlain, Stew Hamel, Leigh Turner, Bob Kilpatrick, Jeff Brown, and Steve Wright. Jeff has two loops standing on an ice board and one in the solid comfort of a DN. One of Leigh’s trips was in the big skeeter “Thin Ice,” in 1991.

Sixteen skippers have made two trips, and eighty-two others have made one official loop.

One South Bay Scooter, skippered by Dave Farrell, with plenty of “moveable ballast” has made the trip and, speaking of traveling standing up, three iceboard sailors have done it; Jeff Brown, Alex Wadson, and Chad Lyons. Lloyd Roberts has made two loops in the “Mother of all Gambits,” G-1.

No history of the “Hard Way” would be complete without mention of the “Thunder Run” from Center Harbor to Brewster Beach made by Jeff Kent and Peter Hill during the 1995 Spring Frolic. No onlooker who saw the two of them hit the beach after a screamingly overpowered record-setting run from Center Harbor will ever doubt that something
noteworthy had just occurred.

No “Hard Way” has been completed since 2004 (there have been three attempts since then, two successful. ed.) when twenty boats in Fleet 15 made it. For your attempt, all you need to do is round up at least five boats, at least one skipper who has received a previous Hard Way award, and at least one NEIYA member, pack up safety gear, spares, and tools, and go for it. NEIYA membership is not required for
each individual participant, but it is certainly encouraged. Don’t forget to make a detailed report upon completion of your circuit.

Remember: Assistance and shelter is a long way from the middle of Lake Winnipesaukee. Brewster Beach, Wolfeboro to Center Harbor is twenty-seven miles each way. To accomplish the whole trip you may end up sailing over a hundred miles. Sharp runners, and be prepared. There are good reasons why pilots do their own pre-flight inspections.

Notes from Experience:

1 – In most cases two small fleets are better than one large one. It is easier to keep track of your fellow sailors and, most important, reef crossings go faster.

2 – Use the wind as best you can when you have it. You never know how long it will last, and it can be a long push back to your launch point.

3 – Eat breakfast someplace where they have lake chart placemats. Also, if you have a real chart, it might fit rolled up inside your boom. It’s easy to get disoriented out there.

4 – Toss or slide big ice chunks out onto the clear ice from your reef crossing points to make it easier to find the spot again on the way back from Center Harbor. This may not be necessary now that we have GPS waypoints, but remember that the ice moves fast; do not assume that the crossing is still safe without checking it.

5 – At reef crossings, a couple of lead boats scout for a crossing point and stop. If the crossing is sailable, wave boats through between you, otherwise help carry them over. Even if reef crossings appear to be sailable, raise your tiller so you don’t take it in the teeth in the event of a sudden stop.

6 – One designated Lead boat and one designated “Trail” boat. The Lead boat concentrates on navigation and clear ice. The Trail boat concentrates on counting sails and making sure the fleet stays intact and in front of him. The fleet in turn needs to keep an eye on the Trail boat. Everybody counts sails at reef crossings.

7 – If you have a choice, the style of steering runner with the brake on the front of the blade is best on this trip. If you lose the wind, it’s a great place to tie your mainsheet so you can pull the boat rather than push it. Again, it can be a long push back.

8- Each fleet should have at least one set of spare dry clothing. Some of us carry “space blanket” survival sacks; they come folded to the size of a pack of cigarettes.

9 – Smart ice boaters put a couple of spare clevis pins in their empty adjuster holes, especially on big ice. When the rig comes down, a departed pin is usually the culprit. No big thing if you have a spare right there. “For lack of a nail…”

9 – The roll of duct tape goes without saying. Smart ice boaters put a couple of spare clevis pins in their empty adjuster holes, especially on big ice.When the rig comes down, a departed pin is usually the culprit. No big thing if you have a spare right there. “For lack of a nail…”

10 – Long experience has shown that, if the wind is strong and steady from the north, a prudent skipper would consider taking along a storm sail, especially for the possible wild ride from Center Harbor to Wolfeboro.