Chickawaukie Ice Boat Club

As part of the Clayton Lake NY Antique Boat Museum’s 2025 exhibit, "Racing the Wind", Bob Wills will be speaking about the history of ice sailing, it’s evolution and spread from the time of the Dutch in the Hudson River Valley till today. The presentation is this Friday, May 16, from 5:30 to 6:30 pm.

Brian Reid and Bob have loaned a number of iceboat artifacts to ABM that are now on display at the museum in Clayton, NY (Thousand Islands/St. Lawrence River). Bob is head of the Hudson River Ice Yacht Preservation Trust.

Here is a YouTube Live Link to the presentation, available to see after the event.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tU_ViDvJn7o

John was a long time member of the club, and very active. There won’t possibly be time for all the stories, but we’ll give it our best shot.

The Steel House is along side the Apprenticeshop. At 11 , weather permitting, we will land a gig at the beach below the Steel House, load a wreath and take it out into the harbor. Idea is have an hour or so for socializing and refreshment then a story circle. Afterwards a chance to tour the A’shop. There will be oysters provided by one of John’s friends. If people want to bring along finger food, snacks, that would be welcome. There will be coffee and tea.

This trailer was just built in Wisconsin to deliver a sailboat mast to Maine. The builder wishes to sell it here to avoid hauling it home.

It’s 40’ long, 18’ from the rear bumper to the front of the diagonals should one wish to cut it down. 3500# axle. Torsion bar suspension.

Arriving in Maine sometime in May. $750 or best offer.

scott.r.earnest@gmail.com

Scott Earnest

Lodi WI / Chebeague Island ME
608 635 5810

Here are the minutes from our meeting this past Sunday. Thanks to Secretary Turner for compiling them poste haste:

MINUTES CHICKAWAUKIE ICE BOAT CLUB SPRING 2025 MEETING

4/13/2025

Members in attendance

Bill Buchholz Linc Davis

Jim Gagnon Bill Bunting

Jim Turner Sandy Butterfield

Mike Young Dan Stillman

Dave Fortier Ben Fuller

Bob MacEwen

Meeting was called to order on a cold and rainy morning inside the Camp Kieve dining hall. The first order of business was presenting the newly-created “These Boots are not Made for Walking” award via FaceTime to Paul Chamberlain. The award acknowledged Paul’s recent feat of dragging his DN twelve miles back to the launch across a windless and slushy Moosehead Lake without cleats! Paul accepted his award graciously.

Next a Media award was presented to Dan Stillman for his continued output of wonderful videos. We are fortunate to be entertained and archived and the videos just keep getting better.

Jim Gagnon presented the financial report (don’t forget your dues) which was followed by a brief discussion regarding insurance ending with the agreement that the current status would remain.

Ben Fuller announced that a memorial service for recently deceased John Eastman would be held at the Apprentice Shop in Rockland on May 11. Updates and details will be posted on the club website.

Meeting was adjourned and after some merchandise and club swag was exchanged attention shifted to lunch featuring homemade baked beans and pot pie , and large fillet of baked salmon. No one left hungry.

Cheers,

Jim Turner

Now’s the time to tidy up your gear, take care of those items of maintenance and repair on your list, and sharpen, oil and store your runners. Here’s how:

Edgy Friends 2025 youtu.be

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Most iceboating videos are exciting, fast and noisy. After all, that’s what we come for. But what we don’t always see is the rest of the story. Here’s the story of what has become known as the Moosehead Death March, with all due respect to the boys at Bataan, of course.

No Place Like The Pit Moosehead Lake 4•7• 25 youtu.be

Now, if successful expeditions on Moosehead were routine, they wouldn’t be so special. A lot can happen out there on a big remote lake and so far we have been very careful with how we approach it. But if we didn’t push a little we wouldn’t have had all those great days. Moosehead is our crown jewel and every year, no matter how bleak the season, we live by the mantra: “there is always Moosehead”. Take it seriously, but take it when you can and when the conditions allow.

Hope to see you all at the meeting on Sunday!