Chickawaukie Ice Boat Club

One of the most common questions from people curious about iceboating is if we can sail in the snow. We hem and haw about bonded vs. unbonded and maximum depths,etc, and about loosing split rings and clevis pins in the powder. But the deal deal breaker is the loads on the boat. Unless you’re sailing a Monotype or the Mary B. the loads really build up in all the wrong places.

A DN sailor on Lake George learned this the hard way today.

Here we are having a great time doing power slides in the snow as if to say not only am I sailing in it, I am dominating it!

Next slide please:

We must admire the guy’s spirit. Snow is all we have all over, so if there’s a breeze on a sunny day our insides just cry out to go sailing. We attempted it ourselves here last week to no avail, probably thankfully. Not much of a recovery anywhere in the forecast, but the cold snap coming might button up lakes on Cape Cod. So for now, just relax and make a snow man or go skiing.

Last month at Sabattus the day started off with light air. The ice fishermen didn’t feel the need to tie down their tent, and all was fine until the wind began to build. As we were leaving the pits after lunch Jim Gagnon noticed the Red Eskimo doing what Eskimos do, running across the ice downwind. He managed to outrace it before it made the far shore and get his plank around behind it. Boat and tent coasted to a quiet stop.

That was then, but just the day before yesterday at Green Bay, Wisconsin, this amazing section of Lake Michigan was discovered and sailed by a few Nites and a Lockley. Pending snow precluded bigger plans.

They’ve had a tough year so far, so this ice must have felt great. Thanks to Mike Peters for the photo.

A kite sailor from Quebec had a dream of sailing solo the full length of Lake Baikal. Not only did he accomplish it, he made a pretty good film of it. Take note in the beginning of the incredible installation at the Moscow airport. What is it?

https://youtu.be/Qquwvh1tbbA

Jordan Bay is grey this morning…

After a three year drought, Nantucket had ice. Ken Panacek send this report:

“We had a quick freeze on the sand pile. Local Commodore Chris Gordon and I called out the fleet after a 3 year hiatus. 4” of pack ice and a bit of smoother gray ice made the day on Sunday. Beggars can’t be choosers so we made the best of it with 9 boats sailing.”

Way to go! It might be the place to go if the rest of New England doesn’t recover soon.

Can you believe it? First of February: must be a record. A couple of desperados thought they could sail the north end from Lake Farm. Six inches of black ice covered with a half inch of apparently unbonded snow. But in trying to push a runner through the snow it became very clear that it wasn’t going to work. The wind was light. One of the guys had noticed on the way to the launch that a big patch of the south end that was open two days ago was now frozen.

With nothing better to do besides work, they thought to go have a look and take a poke at it. Turned out that part of the south end was locked in with 5″ of grey ice. Beyond that was the black. They walked over to have a look and found 2.75″ of clear, hard black ice. A rare bird this season. A nice breeze out of the north piped up, so again with nothing better to do, why not rig up and do some sailing. Access was a challenge, but they found an off-season camp with a tiny beach.

Not only was it a first for Dammy, it was the first pits of the year aside from Sabattus out of the wind and in the sun. They would have been happy just to set up the boats and then pack up, just for the pleasure.

But as Frank says, are we here to assemble boats or are we here to sail? The grey ice was a tiny plate bounded by snow and slush and the Black Ice, which was not so tiny. So they sailed until the wind died ahead of the storm.

Bob Lombardo also found some great ice on the Penobscot River and adjacent woods. Turn up the sound:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1w7KtC76kus