Chickawaukie Ice Boat Club

The warm temp in 30’s and brisk wind seemed to compact the thin snow, it got slow. Plus lots of snowmobile tracks getting sticky. A little rain will make it like a railroad freight yard, enough rain might bring back our now accustomed glassy stuff. Three Cheapies and Jory’s Miniskeeter actually raced around buoys, great time had by all, lunch in a lee, and a short tour and back to Bog bridge and home.

Chickawaukee blew and likely sublimed to mostly clear with scattered small drifts. Most, but not all open water frozen and we have all of February (“as days get longer cold grows stronger”) to maybe get ye olde frog pond back in action. Lloyd

If you plan on sailing tomorrow, please keep an eye open for a GPS lost on the north broads yesterday. As the snow blows away it might become visible. Jory lost his car keys out there a few years ago, and Ted recently lost his wallet. Folks, this is Maine: leave your keys in the car, your wallet under the seat and the GPS in a zipped pocket.

See you on the ice!

This must be some sort of record . We’ve been sailing this lake fairly regularly for six weeks. There were people there today from all over: New Hampshire, New York City, Long Island, Rhode Island and a new lady sailor from Dexter. Tippy the stern steerer had a hard time with the combination of snow, strong wind and cast iron runners. To his credit, Ben brought her back in one piece. The pressure ridge at the south end of the narrows hasn’t changed much. The flag there is still good. Rest of the south end
hasn’t changed much. It was wonderful seeing the old grey ice again once the wind piped up and began to scour the plate.

Fred actually isn’t dragging his ass, rather he’s behind a snow drift. Even with temps in the low thirties the snow remained dry and it was great fun blasting through the drifts causing cascades of snow to curtain the bow.

Another wonderful phenomenon was yesterday’s runner tracks. We compressed a thin line of snow under the runners just tight enough so the the wind couldn’t quite get a hold of it. They now stand in bas-relief:

Below, those tracks are all proud of the surrounding snow:

We didn’t catch the name of this young pilot as he was off with his dad, Tim, in the side car, but he sets an Optimist rig and has a ball. He would have needed an Opti storm sail today.

Tomorrow looks like lots of sun, plenty of wind and a bit colder. Wednesday is snow, and the rain that was coming behind it is now predicted to be a drizzle. More snow next weekend. This could be it, really.

Lots of wind helped drive about a dozen boats through he snow. Wind was very gusty, and it also drove Breck’s mast step down through the deck of his DN.

It’s important to mention that we don’t report breakage as some sort of macho badge of honor, but rather to keep us aware of the loads involved and the inherent risks on a big frozen lake. Carnage reports are educational. It’s good to know that if you put your springboard into a pressure ridge it will break. If you over sheet your mast in a lot of wind it will break. Please take these breakage stories as cautionary tales rather than bravado.

That said, Lloyd once told me on a fine spring day as my stud plates were hanging on by only a couple of bent screws: ” How elegant to sail your boat to the edge of destruction on the very last day of the season”.

Wind should be a bit more moderate tomorrow. Big weather Tuesday-Wednesday might set us up with fine ice again for the weekend.

Miniskeeter and Cheapskates will be tuning on short course on Megunticook Sunday 10:30 AM followed by picnic and lake tour, others welcome.

Lloyd