Chickawaukie Ice Boat Club

Ramblin Roger just popped up on the big lake. He drove right onto 24” of ice with a hard surface at Derby Bay on the American side. The forecast for the weekend looks excellent, and would be a good venue for the Hundred Mile Race. I have a similar report from the north end at Magog. North winds on Fri, Sat & Sun are perfect for a long race on this lake. Will have a confirmation of the north end soon.

This could be our best chance for a Spring Fling. Will boats from all over New England converge if the ice pans out?

For those of you who don’t golf, the Birdie is an excellent shot, and a game played one under par. We scored a Birdie on Megunticook this morning by getting there early, sailing by eight a.m. The overnight temps were just under freezing, but the cold dry air seems to have evaporated away most of the water/melted slush and left us with a nice smooth surface of hard ice.

The air continued to blow all day, although by about 1:00 the runners were finding slush in some of the narrow straights and alongshore. The ice out in the broads stayed hard much longer. Must have something to do with the radiant heat of the land warming the plate. The drain holes had two inches of ice over them, which back in November would have been really good, but today it was just ok. It must have been the snow falling into them on Sunday that super-cooled the water as we haven’t had that much sub freezing in the past two days.

Jory, Bryce and I made a couple of trips to the north end, rounding the sauna and looping Lamb’s Folly. The sauna bay always has a great charge of wind in it, and the floating sauna makes for a dramatic leeward mark. Thanks, Cam, and I do hope we keep you entertained!

Where to next? Damariscotta didn’t wet out so well from the last snow, but we’re getting rain tomorrow which might finish the job. Moosehead is starting to bear keeping eyes on. Maybe it’ll come out of this warm stretch ready to welcome us.

Megunticook and Chickie both have wonderful, hard surfaces this morning. They might last till noon, who knows, but as soon as the wind comes up we’re going to sail on Megunticook.

Frank and Denis found some joy on Lac St. Francois over the past couple of days:

We waited for the wind all morning, but it was really dead. So we skated to check the shell ice spots of yesterday, and they were all 2’’ thick. Except where I went in yesterday!!! (he found a 10″ deep shell puddle which he described like a cartoon character running off a cliff: it’s fine until he stops running, there’s a pause, then down he goes!)
We secured a large plate, maybe 2 miles x 4 miles, where we could sail without any hazards. The wind raised at 13:30, and it was the perfect wind for our full rig. Even un bit too strong at times. We stopped at 16:30 as the snow began to fall. It’s supposed to turn to rain tonight, so it may improve the surface by filling some frozen drain holes.

I’m going back tomorrow, and if we can’t sail, then I will repair my plank. “

One of the reasons we decided to try this new launch site is because the club wants to keep as low profile as possible at Lake Farm. We’ll be back there once the ground is frozen and we can drive and park on the grass, but if we had been there today we’d have stove it all up.

As it was, the Vannah Rd. site worked out very well. Plenty of parking, easy on-off, no mud. The wind is a little wild at times as it swirls around the cove in the pit area (steady 15 gusting to 25), but it’s great to have the luxury of beating up as far as the Narrows and then getting the long sleigh ride back down. We didn’t go anywhere else because of the lurking threat of drain holes. We found a few and marked them, but attempting to approach Deep Cove in half a gale they were actually hidden under the waves of two inch deep puddles; more like small seas then puddles, actually:

That is not orange peel ice, it’s wavelettes. Note the spray on deck. We were taking on water most of the day, goggles covered in spray. But with the warm wind they’d dry in seconds and a slow drip of freshwater running into the mouth kept the throat from getting parched by the crazy balls to the wall sailing. One of the amazing characteristics of slush runners is the when you’re hit with a big lift, the entire boat weather-cocks and sets you on just the right course while casting up a fabulous rooster tail for your sailing buddies’ benefit.

Between the gusts the seas would settle down to a mirror.

Rambin Roger gets the longest drive award, as usual. The Lamb gang from Mass. stayed at the Inn and by all accounts had just as much fun there as they had on the ice. Another half dozen boats rounded out the fleet. Sailed hard and put away wet, it looks like we’ll have some time now to dry the boats, lick the wounds, and watch the weather.