Chickawaukie Ice Boat Club

We have wet-out: four inches of slush, 18″ ice. Sailing tomorrow with great hopes that tonight’s temps in the high twenties will freeze it. If it does, cloud cover with highs in the low thirties tomorrow should maintain it. Much colder Saturday night for a splendid day Sunday, although with lighter winds. Bring slush runners just in case. Jory and I did the whole lake, top to bottom and back, on slushies two years ago.

There is some snow on the ramp, so we’ll need to do a bit of boat carrying. The Lambs are coming with three Whizz, Denis and Frank with their two, and the local Whizz #2 will give a fleet of six. Any other Whizz are encouraged to come either day this weekend for the largest assemblage to date.

Conditions into the week cautiously optimistic, so this could be good for a while. Similar conditions are reported by Kate Morrone on Sunnapee and by Curtis on Sebago. If Damariscotta doesn’t work out we’ll de-camp to Nason’s on Sebago. The little roughness in the distance, photo above, gives me pause; the scouts didn’t want to beat up the surface with lots of deep footprints all the way out there. Come sailing and see for yourself!

Just when we think Ramblin Roger has gone to a beach in Florida and set up his DN,

we hear that he’s checking ice in Greenville. This guy is ramblin’ in the fast lane!

Clouds have covered coastal Maine and we are just about to receive our first solid rain since last year. The wet-out is upon us and I suspect we’ll be on Damariscotta soon. Moosehead, on the other hand, is getting snow with this event so we’ll need to ask Rodger to go back there at some point.

Here’s a video by Joe Terry standing at the windward mark at the recent ISA in Michigan. There’s a Nite start that will get Bunting’s attention, and then A Skeeters that will take your breath away rounding the windward mark:

About our two guys from the east coast, Jordan Glaser got a 7th in the A Skeeter fleet, and Mark Hancik managed a 4th with his Yankee in the B Skeeters. Thanks to those guys for making the trip; let’s hope for a larger East Coast contingent next year. A handful of Whizz could could work wonders!

Ramblin’ Roger rambled up and around Moosehead today. He found 6-7
inches of snow at Rockwood and more down around Greenville. All is heavily tracked by snowmobiles. He had no idea how thick the ice might be but it is usually 3+ feet this time of year. He likes the countryside, nice and quiet. He hopes to see a moose.

He is going to wait out the coming wet weather in Orono and see what happens.

Chickawaukee, not a surrogate for Moosehead, is starting to gray out

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This morning’s gale mellowed to a fickle trickle throughout the day. The Sebago Open was sailed in some very light and variable stuff, with just enough of an occasional gust to keep us interested. The core group of Dave Fortier, Harry Richardson, Buchholz and Ramblin Roger managed five races; a few of them with Jim Gagnon (who won the super DN class), Tom Gloudemans, a mystery guy in a hot CSI boat, and maybe some others. There were a lot of boats cruising as well; I counted twenty sails at one point. The racers happily dodged the stalled cruisers punctuating the course.

After four races, Buchholz and Richardson were tied for first so it was proposed that the two of them have a two lap tie breaker. Fortier manned the finish in case it was close. The wind was still on coffee break, wandering around lost, but they had a start. Buchholz managed to make the windward mark first, but on the final downwind leg he was parked as Harry rounded the windward mark well wound up and going deep. With some serious sprints Buchholz managed to keep himself between Harry and the mark, so won the Regatta, and the coveted Doug Raymond built Sebago Open Trophy.

Congratulations also to Jeff Knapp for the teriffic job on his new Whizz #14, “Whizz-Bang, oops”. His son Kevin (?) joined him in a DN for the day. He was headed to work this morning when he noticed an e-mail about sailing today. He bagged work, loaded the boat and headed for the lake. A fine example for us all!

Lee and Karin had their usual sunset cruise as the wind offered us one for the road. It really came on nice as the day wound down, contrary to all the old fart predictions. We could barely see them on the far horizon as we broke down boats and loaded trailers. They brought back the nice flag that Jim Gagnon made to mark the pressure ridge crossing. He’ll be making a bunch more to disseminate throughout the fleet so there will always be a few on hand.

If he can have a few made in time for the annual CIBC Moosehead Long Way we’ll be able to mark pressure ridges as we cross them, helping to finding our way back. Every little bit helps on that vast panorama of springtime ice. Watch the weather, check the web cams, keep in touch. We can only have this much fun if there are many eyes on all conditions.

Thanks to everyone who showed up today, and if it turns out this was your last day of the season, then you couldn’t have picked a better one. Bravo!

Today’s racing has been canceled in observation of Oliver Moore’s OBE in similar conditions earlier this season. But Commodore Fortier announced this morning that the Sebago Open will be sailed tomorrow, Monday 3/23. Our apologies to those who will be at work, but the ice is so nice and the forecast too good. The Sebago Open trophy hasn’t been won in years and it needs a home! The “Open” means that it’s open to all DN’s no matter the condition, so dust off your old barn queen and come play! Skipper’s meeting at 9:30, first start at 10:00. Nason’s Beach, Lake Sebago.