Chickawaukie Ice Boat Club

Big tip of the helmet to Bob MacEwen for raising the bar. Just how fast will these things go? Is 50mph and 100 miles the next goal? Do we remember how hard it was blowing last Saturday?

Cheapie Speed record set on Damariscotta Lake on Saturday 1/28/2017

The wind was blowing 15 to 20 MPH out of the WNW and the ice was so smooth that it looked like someone had cleaned the entire North Broads with a
Zamboni. I thought I would try to see how fast my Cheapskate “Hat Trick” would go. Lloyd Roberts had set the bar at 42.8 MPH earlier in the
month and was on hand to witness my attempt. My first attempt was pretty wild with the boat hiking several times causing me to immediately let go of the mainsheet, so when I stopped to check my GPS I only had reached 39.8 MPH. On the second attempt I resolved to hold onto the
mainsheet no matter what happened, and Lloyd gave me his GPS to carry along so we could verify the readings from my unit. This time I did hold on to the sheet when the boat started hiking and to my relief the boat just stabilized on the lee runner and the sail dumped some air to allow the windward runner to gently come back down on the ice. I did a couple of passes and then stopped to check the readings from both GPS units. Lloyd’s unit read 45.7 MPH for maximum speed and my unit read 45.6 MPH. I know the DNs, Whizzes, Nites, and many other larger boats regularly go much faster, but 45 MPH on my Cheapskate was plenty fast for me. I spent the rest of the day just screaming around until I just couldn’t hold on any longer. What a Great Day!

Bob MacEwen

I made a several omissions in my race report. The first was that I did not list the names and sail numbers of all registrants for the Link Davis. The second was that I did not put names with the sail numbers in the results that I did list. I forget that not everyone has an IDNIYRA yearbook handy!

Name        Sail# race1 race2 race3 race4 race5 total

Fortier      4690     2         1          1         1          1         4

Raymond 4272      3         2         3         2         2         9

Polyblank 4619      4         4         2         3         3         12

Adams      5249      5         5          4        4         4         17

Gordon      582       1         3       DNS  DNS   DNS     31

The remainder of the registrants DNF

Hope this clarifies for all. THINK NO SNOW! Dave

This one courtesy of Bill Bunting:

“Monday was ultimately another delightful day on our magical lake, but very different from the last two. Gone was the weekend crowd, with perhaps a dozen boats left on the ice. The plate was superb, the sun was bright, the company excellent — all that was needed was wind, which is the seemingly inevitable result when media people arrive. Today it was two very pleasant, smart, and engaged young women from the Bangor Daily News, a reporter and a photographer.

A weak and transitory westerly breeze appeared mid-morning, sufficient to prove to the press that iceboats do work, but it didn’t last long enough to give any rides. While we waited for another breeze we were entertained by the graceful figure-skating of the photographer ( regretfully I am too old to remember names). But patience was eventually rewarded, although not until after the press had headed back for Bangor, and the day was capped by a wonderful SW breeze as the sun descended that made the day worthwhile for those with the patience to hang in there. Then it quit as suddenly as it had come, although most everyone was able to sail or drift back to the farm.

Half a dozen boats owned by incurable optimists remain on the ice, awaiting come what may.”

It looks like the photographer is really moving, or taking a nap!

Bill Bunting

Quite a few folks set up today in spite of the low wind forecast. Sounds like it was worth it. Jim Gagnon sends this report, with pictures by Kate Morrone:

“15 + or – boats were sailing at times; the winds were light and shifty. We had a good time with the reporters from the BDN. The were very interested and asked lots of great questions. As the winds were light there were not a lot of great photo ops, but they did get some shots of all us as posers. They spoke with almost everyone there then headed out on to the ice. Bill Bunting attempted to give one a ride but the wind just did not cooperate. The photographer, who was on skates, entertained Bill and I with a little ice dancing. See video sent separately.”

Her article will be in Friday’s edition, outdoors section. I invited them to follow the web site and come back when more winds were promised for a better ride.

Back to business, the winds were calm at noon so I skated down to the South Broads to check the south entrance to the narrows. The ridge where the flag is posted is about the same but a crack has opened up running due south from the flag for about 200 feet then takes a left turn to the shore, it is 6 to 8 inches wide. This needs to be watched. The new ridge that is forming about 1/3 mile or so north of the ice shacks, before the North entrance to the narrows, seems active with a small hump forming about 20 feet in front of the flagging tape that was placed. This also needs to be watched. It was only about 3 inches wide.

The wind came up for about 30 minutes and we finished off the day with a game of chase around the north end. The wind died as we just made it to the pits in time to pack up.

If this video won’t come through on the post, allow me to say that when I suggested the reporters bring their skates, I had no idea…!

Thanks Jim and Kate for taking the time to send these in, and to Fred Greis for the hot dog and burger barbecue at lunch time.

When I arrived on the ice first on Saturday morning I was happy to find launch in good condition and was able to get help with my boat onto the ice. As always, observing the wind conditions noticed little in the launch area, but out on the ice there were frequent snownados blowing down the lake from the west. The forecast was for strong wind from the west so it seemed as predicted. For this reason I decided to set up the DN accordingly.
I have a bendy CSI mast and for such occasions I have a stiffener that I best describe as a batten of constant strength. It has carbon fiber skins with balsa core of varying thickness. The bottom mast step area of the mast removable and the batten is installed that way. The next heavy air accessory is a set of 1/4inch insert runners with 20inch profile that are the best I have for high speed fun and competition. Many boats had arrived, and were setting up for high wind as well, I recall about 90% were fortunate enough to own a high wind sized sail and were using it! For many of the skeeter type boats it is a DN sail, many with DN masts as well.
When all of the DN sailors arrived Doug and I had decided that postponement was to be the call. All the racers agreed and were planning to be on the ice Sunday anyway, so all was good. So many of us went out set up for the heavy air as best we could.
It was a very wise thing that we did not attempt to race, it was well over safe racing wind speed. Many boats were out sailing, and we definitely were going very fast. I know that the urge overcame me and racing happened without a race course. When you are hitting those speeds and you see a boat ahead, it is hard to resist the urge to overtake an pass. I had my flattest high wind sail that I own and I was smokin’. I believe that it was around 1400 when I decided to call it a day, and started to head toward the launch. Of course sheet in and get to the pits as fast as the boat will go, and I did. I was doing just that and about 1/4 mile before the island something broke and the rig came down. All was not lost, when the rig came down I was at speed and the ice was clear and smooth and I coasted for for that 1/4 mile to the island. The forestay was doing its thing so the mast was at the same angle as normal, but the tip of the mast on the ice. I took an extra mitten that I had and put it over the base of the mast to protect the fuselage paint and rather than taking the sail down and having to carry all the separate items, I pushed the remaining distance to the launch site. I could see what had happened, and it had much to do with crazy wind we were playing in. The shroud tang on the plank had snapped, 1/8 inch stainless steel!
I sailed a half dozen or so blazing runs up and down the lake with everything from J14s to Cheapskates and as far as I know the only equipment failures were my tang, Fred Wardwell’s structurally modified Cheapskate hull, and Jimmy Gagnon’s storm sail capsize failure (torn luff).
So, I needed to repair my plank before Sunday morning. Removed the plank leaving the hull on the ice, put all the runners and rigid away, and it was off to Lloyds shop of tools etc. I knew that heat would be needed to remove the bolt holding the remainder of the tang, and Lloyd had just the tool, a high power soldering iron, better than a torch as finish paint on plank does not get damaged.
I did not carry a spare tang because I never expected that it was a breakable item. It was Sunday morning back at the launch, luckily, Denis Guertin had a DN in his trailer with a plank and tangs and allowed Bill Bucholz and I to “borrow” one. Fortunately, Denis’s chocks were not epoxied on as mine were, and the bolt was removable with no damage (broken bolt). It was not a problem bolting it onto my plank, but I was a bit behind schedule. Fortunately Lloyd was off setting the windward mark, and Doug got racers to fill out the forms and sign on the dotted line.
I put the plank back on the hull put those 1/4inch inserts on, stepped the mast, raised sail and got my ass out to the line as fast as I was able. When I got out there Lloyd and Doug had it all under control. The marks were set, and as Lloyd did have to leave us at noon we were planning to use the winner becomes the flag man system when he did. Did I mention that Sunday was not as windy as Saturday, but it was still quite strong. So, we had one of our racers volunteer to be the race flagman. John Hayes did a great job starting and finishing us. We gave him a good show as well, did I tell you it was windy! Some of our leeward mark roundings must have been fun to watch, I know they are challenging and exciting to execute. Man, when you do it right, very satisfying start to the upwind leg!
We had some very fast racing, and were able to get 5 races in before we decided that it was Sunday and that many of us had a long drive home, and we headed for the launch. It was unfortunate that one of our racers Chris had an extra long drive/ ferry ride home to Nantucket island and had to leave after only two races, first and third. He had to catch the ferry, probably not as many runs as in the summertime!
Four boats finished all the races so I will list those and their finishes. Five races so one throw out:)

Sail# race1 race2 race3 race4 race5 total
4690     2         1          1         1          1         4
4272      3         2         3         2         2         9
4619      4         4         2         3         3         12
5249      5         5          4        4         4         17

Thanks to all the racers. Hope you all had fun and a safe drive home. Depending on weather Maine State Championship could be next weekend!