Chickawaukie Ice Boat Club

This lake is just off I-84 in southern NY state. A couple of DN’s sailed it yesterday, and now they are waiting to see what the storm does. Preliminary analysis says that a light dusting is all there is. Bob Strohm’s report is below.

Lake Mahopac, NY (Putnam County). 2 DNs sailed yesterday afternoon and scouted the entire lake. Ice surface is good, there are no hazards other than the typical bubbler issues. There are areas where quads and snowmobiles rutted things up but plenty of good ice elsewhere. Surface for the most part is hard grey snow ice and should be fine for big boats too. Dead calm this morning and only 2-4 predicted for today. Local weather has us getting 1-3 inches and others predicting 3-5. Just a dusting and not snowing at all as of now and it looks like it may stay south of Mahopac. Launch sites are both marinas; Mahopac Marine in town by Anthony’s Deli (now the Brooklyn Cafe) and McDonald Marine behind the Mahopac Library. Also a good new location behind the Tompkins Mahopac Bank also in town and close to food. BTW as of this past Monday night we thought we were done for the season (6″-8″ of snow over very little base), Tuesday’s weather was questionable and Wednesday sailable ice. There is an Ice God. I will post again later as this storm goes through. Hoping to get a good weekend out of it.
Bob Strohm <bob>

Bob Strezelewicz and John Raul ripped it up on Webster today. Bob scouted it a couple of days ago and found a nice plate.

Here’s his report:

“John Raul got out for the first time in 3 years. The ice was a 10 in some spots and 5 in others, frozen snowmobile tracks were a pain in the ass but there was enough good ice to keep us happy. Wind was a steady 5 mph with some good gusts.

It started snowing about 1 pm so we packed up, but as soon as we got our boats packed up no more snow. That’s ok; we were setting up at 8.30 and we had enough sailing for two old farts. Its 3:25 now and no more snow we will see what the night brings.”

Checking the forecast right now it appears Webster will have snow for the next twenty-four hours. We might have missed a good one. Don’t get complacent: keep scouting!

Karol’s Winning Moves in the DN Ice Yacht – YouTube

Karol takes you lap by lap through a DN race and explains exactly why he makes the moves he does. Great lessons as well for those who don’t race but still want to get to that remote cove for lunch with the rest of the fleet. It’s all about the wind.

Hoping Chickawaukee will wet out today and be good to sail tomorrow. Stand By.

Ken Smith demystifies why runners work on ice but not other hard surfaces, concrete, for example, in the latest issue of Runner Tracks. Fascinating.

2021 February Runner Tracks Newsletter – DN North America

Not much to report for sailing ice. If you are anywhere in New England you have only to look out your window to see why. There were many fingers crossed for Sebago, the last great unfrozen lake but it was too little cold to late. Ironically the rule of thumb is that Sebago will be frozen by President’s Day. How cool it would have been if she came in right on schedule.

Someday we’ll be able to go back to Lake Baikal, so we might as well get to know the locals: