Chickawaukie Ice Boat Club

Jim Gagnon just called in from the Vannah Rd launch on Damariscotta. He says conditions have reverted to a thin layer of snow over slush. This will freeze hard tonight, leaving the snow on top. It will probably be styrofoam. Slush runners will be the runner du jour. Big winds and deep cold forecast all day. There are a few smallish drain holes in the launch area, as well as the perpetual open stream to the right of the launch. Please don’t sail into it on your downwind approach to the pits. Come prepared!

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This venue, by the way, is on the short list for the ISA coming up this weekend. Final confirmation Wednesday at 1:00 our time.

Geoff Scott found this today:

If you can tell him what it says on the other side it’s yours. Hole in finger confirms sharpness.

Local forecast not great, get ready to pack up and hit the road!

Yet another fabulous recovery gave us large plates of dead smooth ice, with few rough spots. We set up marks for scratch racing, had a look at the plate and ran a couple of tight races. By and by the Nite was parked and placing a tree branch in a hole. He had just grazed it, but some else had run right over it earlier and didn’t hear a thing. Note the runner tracks below.

Just goes to show there’s always something somewhere.

So the fleet abandoned the course for a free tour of the lake. Great ice all the way up to Cam’s sauna, and a super smooth plate through Lamb’s Folly which we did numerous times, in both directions.

Megunticook gives us that great joy of working through tight straights, pinching up along shore watching overhead for low hanging branches, then bursting out into a broad bay with the throttle down and another island rounding in the offing. DN 4619 and 3314 have been duking it out since the nineties. Today belonged to 4619!

The stern steerers and a few others didn’t make it all the way up. Here the Mighty Merlin, back on the ice after a long rest, pays homage to Tippy.

Breck’s wife Roseanne Holladay made a small rum of mugs to offer. The one in the middle is from a recent sail in Great Pond, She can print pretty much anything you want on a mug. Thirteen dollars for one, ten for twelve or more, plus shipping unless Breck brings them to the ice for you. Contact her at: info at breckslane dot com. They are a bit larger than the average mug, which is nice.

Nothing on offer for ice around here for a while now. Time to hit the road. Stand by for the Doc Fellows Regatta somewhere this coming weekend,

The surface of Megunticook has wetted out nicely under the pressure of wind and warmth. Puddles don’t seem deep enough to make shell ice a concern, and there isn’t that much water so perhaps we’ll get away with only a few drain holes. Likely those old white patches with healed drain holes from the last wet-out will be open again. The plate is still tight to the shore in the places we checked.

Beware if ice fishing holes at the bottom of the launch at Bog Bridge. Yes, it’s that time of year again. As always, carry twenty bucks in your boat so if you happen to take out a pop-up you can stop, apologize profusely, ask him howz the fishin, and give him the money.

With the wind predicted to be NW we’ll set a course to the east of Crane Island with a bottom mark at Polly’s Folly. For all the new DN sailors, this is a great way to tune both your boat and your sailing skills all while having a great time. All classes welcome. Thursday might have something to offer as well.