Chickawaukie Ice Boat Club

While at a long glance the plate looked good, and a short walk yesterday had us thinking that it will certainly be better further out, the only big improvement from last week was the elimination of the packed snow. The surface is still rough. With plenty of wind it’s no problem, just loud and crashy.
There was a great turn out of boats today, and a few made it deep into the south end down the river nearly to The Mills.

There were open cracks and pressure ridges to navigate, and they won’t be getting any better, so be careful:

A couple of back door passes led us to our launch at Vannah Rd:

The ramp is a bit rotten, but the ice down there sure was nice.

The forecast is nothing but wonderful so until a nicer plate of ice appears we’ll be smashing and bashing around this one.

After the warm rain of the last day and a half the pate has smoothed out considerably, although as those of you who sailed here last week we were starting from a pretty low bar. There are patches of thin shell ice which will be annoying but not a big deal. We don’t know if they become less further out. It’s so thin that as we were watching a gust of wind got hold of a bit and sent it flying away.

The ice down the river might be a bit better; it always is on the other side of the narrows/pressure ridge/fence:

Access to this very special part of the lake is unknown at this point. There are significant hazzards to navigate.

Launch at Lake Farm. We’ve chopped down the heaves on the beach and marked the pass.

One may be able to drive down, but trailers can certainly be backed down, unhitched and rolled onto the ice. We might be here for a while so it makes sense to move right in! Be sure to leave room for others.

DN Ice Yachts: James ‘T’ Thieler’s Top Tacking Tips – YouTube

Thanks to T for putting together this video with Mike Madge, who’s been interviewing other top iceboaters. The ifo is priceless and is a must see for all icebat sailors.

The ice at Damariscotta has leveled out nicely in the rain and warmth. Looks like we could have days of great sailing in the offing. Bobby Able is coming up from Long Island with his Mini Skeeter for the duration. Can we get all our east coast MS’s together for the first time? Could there be a Spring Fling a’coming?

Big winds Tuesday may preclude sailing, but we’ll watch the forecast and hope for some moderation.

Iceboaters don’t like to get wet, for obvious reasons. But when your favorite home ice has been no good all winter, and then there’s a quick window between the wind coming on and the rain starting and the whole lake is good to go then sailing hard and putting it away wet is what you gotta do. The Southerly filled in right on schedule and three boats headed upwind bound for the narrows. With a good breeze and miles of ice ahead that grade 3 ice didn’t seem so bad after all.
As always, the ice down south seemed just a tad less rough and we nearly made it to Deep Cove. Sadly, there was a pressure ridge that offered no quarter, so we bore off and ran for home. Downwind the narrows in a southerly is just about as good as it gets. Fast shallow gybes, searching to turn on the glassy ice alongshore.

That’s Milo coming down. He remembered loosing his phone last year in this very spot. It was found floating in its bag in the spring by a fisherman and he got it back. It’s also the place where he was initiated trial-by-fire to iceboating on a Lockley on ice worse than this.

There were some loggers working in the woods near the shore. They had felled a big pine onto the ice and it actually broke through a foot of ice when it landed. Would have been a bit of bad luck to have been sailing by there at just that time.

They were kind enough to mark the spot for us and others with a little pine nursery. That’s Ben Fuller in the background in his new Pocket Skeeter.

Back in the broads Karen and T were helping out the newbies. Sean was running laps in T’s boat getting paced by a Whizz, while back in the pits some old friends with an ice opti were getting tips on how to win the North Americans:

Don’t forget, it’s raining and these kids just kept at it, having a ball. Of course, they’re softwater sailors and it’s normal to get wet while sailing, right?

And it’s off to the races!

The rain will be good for the surface. Cold temps Monday night might give us something to smile about on Tuesday. Wring out your boat and stand by.

Apologies to anyone who came to Megunticook only to find no one there, Double apologies if you actually set up and sailed that crap. One run across the broads early in the morning was enough to make the call to shift to Damariscotta in spite of the smaller wind forecast. Most folks got the memo, but if you don’t communicate with any other sailors then you are out of the loop. One of the shortcomings of using this sort of web site to communicate is that it’s pretty much a one way street. It replaced a very burdensome and confusing email list, which had replaced the phone hotline. We have discussed different ways to have a more open system, but nothing seems to work as well all around. Text lists get big and confusing.
So for now this is how it works, or doesn’t, as the case may be. The best way to avoid that sinking feeling as you drive down to the launch and see no one there is to connect.

There are a few boats on the ice hoping for a morning sail before the rain scheduled for noon. Strong south winds predicted. Big winds, rough ice: be sure your nuts are tight.