Chickawaukie Ice Boat Club

Damariscotta Lake has open water top and bottom, with various ice thicknesses here and there. Not great.

Lovejoy Pond near Manchester was sailed today by Rob Dmitriov and a couple of Skimmers.

Speaking of Skimmers, long time iceboater Bill Cunningham has donated his to a home schooling family on Plymouth Pond. He sends us this report:
"Skimmer delivery went very well. Very nice family! Great kids! Will be a great home for my old skimmer. I plan to give them their first sailing lesson on Sunday at their waterfront area on Plymouth Pond. Will get pictures of them and the skimmer for the CIBC newsletter to recommend other older aging out sailers think about passing their ice boats on to more youthful ice sailers to make sure our sport and club continues on in the future in Maine.
Might be able to have other home schooled youth in the Plymouth area gather to learn ice sailing by using this skimmer on the Mears waterfront property next winter. Maybe a Plymouth Pond Ice Boating Academy for Youth will be opening then!!!”

Thanks Bill!

Now for what we’ve all been waiting for: PUSHAW ON!

Bob Lombardo and Nils Haentjens skated the lake today and found it to be in excellent shape and ready for iceboats.

This is not your child’s latest drawing, it’s real ice crystals, doing the amazing work they do in creating ice.

This is how it looks when you step back a bit. Thicknesses reported between 3" and 6”. Some ice is newer than others.

Nils tells us there were two open spots: one west of Ram Island and one west of Moose Island.

Nils will be there tomorrow and hopefully a few others. We’re in for a beautiful stretch of sailing, but snow is creeping in to our otherwise spotless forecast. If you can’t make it tomorrow, Monday will be a very nice day as well.
Launch from Goulds Landing.

The DNA ‘DN’ Rig youtu.be

Catamaran sailors are discovering the wonder of the DN rig.

Kevin Cormier checked Kezar Lake in Lovell yesterday before the rain. Under a few inches of snow is 8-9” of ice right off The Inn at Pleasant Point. If this wets out we’ll have a very nice plate of ice with a cozy inn right on the water, big fireplace and all.

At Damariscotta Lake we have three inches of ice at Lake Farm.

The lake appears to be frozen completely, and is all wet out. Depending on the effects of the rain and warmth, there could be sailable ice by the weekend.

The web cam at South Twin is fogged out: a good sign that the snow is getting eaten.

On a hunch from an earlier skater’s report, Bob Lombardo headed to The Birches today to check it out. He headed north along the shore all the way to the top and found between 2.5 and 4” of black ice.

The lake is pretty much entirely frozen, with some older ice now under snow. But don’t think you’ve missed any sailing: it was skater’s heaven without a bit of wind. What is it with this windless winter?

Looking south at Kineo from the north end with nothing but ice from here to there.

And for a real treat, Bob came across this field of ice flowers. Those of you who sailed on that memorable day on Cobbosseecontee will recognize these:

Rain starting there late tomorrow initiates a warming trend punctuated by a day of snow mid-week before getting cold again. Don’t give up: ice will come. Thanks Bob!

Pushaw last December. We’re paying for it now!

While we’ve been pondering Plymouth and praying for Pushaw to finish her freeze, Millinocket Lake has been quietly freezing away. Reports from the New England Outdoor Center tell about snow mobiles riding over miles of ice. Ice, not snow. The NEOC has been an unrealized holy grail of the CIBC since forever. They have nice rooms, a great restaurant and bar, a launch site right on the lake, and access to the South Twin/ Amberjesus lake network. A regular destination iceboat sailing resort. We’ve never been there.

Snow is forecast for the region Tuesday. If, by some miracle the snow passes south, the wind forecast for the rest of the week is less than inspiring enough to get our southern ice sailing buddies to make the drive.

But, stand by for updates as intel comes in and the weather does what it will.