Chickawaukie Ice Boat Club

The first weekend in December has long been the CIBC’s traditional opening, and surprisingly, we have made it more years than not. So what a treat to have found this lovely pate of ice. Thanks to Jory Squibb for scouting it yesterday and rousing the masses. Well, not quite all the masses, but four iceboats and two skate sailors. It was very short notice, of course, which seems to be a pattern lately. And it’s not going to get any better with this coming week’s forecast throwing at us everything in the book.

Congratulations to Bob McEwen on the launching of his new Mini Skeeter, MS 106. She sailed wonderfully, keeping pace with Jory, and best of all: nothing broke. David Jones took on the Herculean task of setting up the mighty Hagary “Zeus”, which was un-catchable all day, but what a delight to be behind her and watch her sail.

The thin layer of light snow silenced the runners, but did nothing to slow them down. The SW wind blew straight up the pond and was such a benevolent breeze: steady and warm. Nothing like that capricious northwester who can never decide if he’s a west or a north.

Meanwhile on Damariscotta Lake, Jim Gagnon reports an inch of ice with the same dusting we had today. Will it survive the warm rain?

Web Cam still not in service there, but we’ll be working on it soon.

Hobbs Pond, in Hope, was skated today on two inches of black ice, covered by a dusting of unbonded snow. Not ideal, of course, but no one got wet exploring it. There’s a wet crack halfway down the lake; might be a nascent pressure ridge, but the ice was not checked south of that.Temps in the single digits tonight will give us a tad more thickness by the time the southerly begins to build in around noon. Launch at the public boat launch at the north end.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Ndo4K-PC-HNmHc6ZjEZEt8wXHiToefdR&usp=sharing

White, white everywhere, covering all the ice. A number of small lake have frozen in the past few days and were building ice nicely. Lee Spiller checked on Sabbatus Pond, found an inch and a half and sent this:

Jory Squibb took his new Mini Skeeter BLUE BIRD for its maiden cruise on Plymouth Pond yesterday. It’s the same ice we sailed on two weeks ago, having go through all kinds of nasty weather and survived:

Quebec is snowed out, The Western Challenge in Minnesota has been postponed due to snow, and now Maine. Today’s storm is set to cover the entire state. The south end of Moosehead has already froze, as has South Twin and Pushaw. The scouts will be out this coming week so stand by to sail!

Reports from Plymouth Pond indicate 5″ from the launch out 50 yds, then 2-3″ on the rest of the plate. Skaters were gliding yesterday which gives an idea of the surface. Big snow coming in tonight, but nice breeze and partly sunny today.

No confirmed sailing yet, but if you want to go, call around and find a buddy or two. Get it while you can!

A few years ago the Palmer tandem Lingwes was slowly rotting away in a damp barn in New Hampshire. She was discovered, restored, and sold to a fellow in Wisconsin. He trailed her home in the middle of a blizzard, cleaned her up and built an excellent storage rack for her.

Now, with early ice popping up everywhere he got her out on the ice for the first time on Marsh Miller Lake in west central Wisconsin. No, he does not car top Lingwes on the Camaro.

Wind was light, but they sorted out the set-up and are ready to go next time it blows