Chickawaukie Ice Boat Club

Common aggravations with CS include sticky runners, stiff in chocks. They may have been fine after building but now have absorbed a bit of moisture and don’t rotate well creating significant drag. Do something. A “Red Devil” paint scraper good and sharp works well to shave the inside of the chocks. Check that surfaces are flat and keep scraping until runners rotate freely without sideways play. Do most of scraping on outboard chock. Wax chock and runner body heavily. Of course if runner does not have “Formica” sides you can just sand/scrape that wood. While you are at it saw off extra threads on the runner bolts and make it easier to set up.

Often builders leave corners of wood on the fuselage square and sharp. This is going to hurt sooner or later when you fall on it or it falls on you. Round them off, the boat is angular enough without all the corners. One builder noticed that his boat seemed heavier than the prototype, his “2X4” sides are really 2X4 rather than 3 1/2 X 1 3/4 lumber yard size. He could rout away some of the extra wood or even just unscrew whatever screws held it together while the glue dried and saw 1/2 an inch or so off the sides. Another builder wants to amputate some of the rear lunch/tool compartment so it will fit in his van, why not? Where is the sheet going to attach, the back of his helmet? The technical and protest committees do not exist.

The skinny bed rail runners cut through crust and snow noticeably better than 1/4 in. DN plates they work well in slush too. I have a pile of free bed rails for anybody. Long runners seem to slow the boat down tacking and jibing more than the short plans built bed rails, probably due to light weight and inertia of the boat as well as dragging less runner around the turns. The speed advantage of longer runners may not be apparent since we have not taken up serious racing and the CS isn’t very fast anyway. There are design trade-offs.

The nice lady at the Birches front desk says that there is only a dusting of snow in Rockwood, and radar indicates that that precipitation is just about to pass on by. What has fallen on the lake is wet out and bound to freeze overnight. What this means is that Moosehead Lake has dodged yet another bullet and again is the only known sailable ice in New England.

Anybody interested in sailing tomorrow? The Jersey guys will be there, I’ll be there. The roads should be clear by tomorrow, but leave extra time anyway. Sunday might be the better day so an overnight might be the way to go. It certainly takes the edge off such a long trip. Check the forecast, check the web cams, and check in if you plan on going.

Damariscotta Thursday by David Lampton who reports ice plate seems intact. Chicky looks similar except for extensive open water. 1 1/2 inches of wet snow Friday AM wetting out to slush which could solidify with forecast temps in teens for a couple of nights depending on how much snow we get later in day. Hope springs eternal for ice closer than good old Moosehead

The snow falling this morning seems to be covering most of New England, including the great potential of Lake Champlain. But as of nine this morning Moosehead has just a dusting which is wetting out in the standing water from yesterday’s thaw.
This morning at nine also sees Mark Hanscik and Jordan Glaeser headed for Moosehead from New Jersey. They are desperate to get some training time in their A Skeeters ahead of the upcoming ISA (which is supposed to be in the East this year) and there’s a chance they could be rewarded for their optimism. While the forecast for Saturday and Sunday isn’t great, it could be sailable. And if you’ve never seen an A Skeeter, the Formula One of iceboats, here’s your chance.
We’ll know more about the conditions later in the day and will report back here, but I just wanted to give a heads up to the possibility of the weekend at The Birches.

The 1 inch of warm rain and heavy winds at 50+F last night has taken its toll. Chickawaukee lost 2 inches of ice from 6 inches near my beach to 4 inches. Assuming that 2 inches was lost out further where was a scant 4 inches yesterday before rain I did not venture beyond known knee deep water, 2 inches of warm ice (1/2 the strength of cold ice) is not reassuring to this thin ice explorer.

David Lampton reported 7-3 1/2 inches at 7AM on Damariscotta before rain yesterday. We can reasonably assume 2 inches lost there too.

Bryan Hitchock sent a photo from the Dammy launch ramp showing a fish house and pedestrian out in mid lake yesterday. No ice firshermen have been seen out away from shore on Chicky all year, no doubt leery of the large expanse of open water that has been there 1/2 way down the lake all winter through some good cold nights.

In addition to the thinness there must be drain holes and runner catching cracks waiting to heal on both lakes. We need real February weather, a few days of single numbers/teens to have useable ice. The surface looks great, smooth and shiny to granular, mostly down to and well into older foundation black ice. Strips of debris that were below the ice surface yesterday are now sticking up above the surface about am inch.

We had thick fog this AM. By late AM the fog had cleared and as I ventured out on the ice a thin film of white fog developed on the ice surface further out, it spread as I walked and grew up to maybe 20 feet deep, now partially obscuring the further shore and filling the lake. Never a dull moment on the ice.