Chickawaukie Ice Boat Club

It feels like too many sailing days to count, but it’s really about the boats. People kept showing up all day, and by early afternoon sails could be seen from top to bottom.
The racers set up the marks again to continue training for the worlds, later this month. We scouted the remaining hazzards south of the pressure ridge and put a cone at the western most hole. Leave it to starboard heading north. A small fleet did cat and mouse figure eights around the Twin Islands as the wind began to build into the mid teens.

After a restful line up we drag raced flat out for the final two miles to the top of the lake where we found a nice lee on the funky dock of swamp squatter’s camp. Back at the pits we met Michael Young from Mt.Desert and his son. They’ve built a narrow Gambit with tandem seating, much more aerodynamic than the standard model:

We know that aerodynamics are everything in iceboat design and building. Michael made some very nice inserts from solid aluminum with stainless blades.

Pushaw will be open for business tomorrow as usual. There’s a couple of more days before this comes to a messy meteorological end. Then we’re back into the other great iceboating activity: scouting ice and watching the weather!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKZSCzg-IGc

Another epic day in paradise. The DN fleet completed the 2014 New Englands with hours to spare, while a dozen or so touring boats took long trips up and down the lake. We’re beginning to poke in to remote coves and explore the west side of the islands. The ice around the Twin Islands is tight, with an excellent puff blowing right down the straights. There is still a big open hole just south of the Twins, about a third of the way to the pressure ridge. And this lake just keeps on giving: one of the guys had a pair of extra track cars rattle off the boom somewhere between the bottom and the top of the nine mile, five thousand acre lake. Three boats headed back to find them, and with the help of the skaters (one of whom had nearly tripped over it earlier) they found them at opposite ends of the lake.

THis photo of the pits doesn’t do justice to the teeming masses of great boats and people who came sailing today. More boats will be showing up tomorrow, and the pit area seems able to accommodate cars and trailers easily. Sunshine, days in the twenties, nights in the teens, and wind all the way to Sunday. So when someone wishes you Happy New Year tonight, you’ll know that the start of this year could hardly be happier.

Thanks to Bob Lombardo for the photo.

Andre Baby has been busy scouting:

Hi All,

Bob Dill and I scouted Mississquoi bay off Venise en Québec today. Snow Ice is 6 to 8 inches thick, we didn’t see any hazards and drain holes have healed . Access from the beach was easy. The surface varies from smooth to pockmarked, 8 to 6 so I’d say overall it’s a seven. Course could be a mile +. Bob took many pics, which I will forward later. I would have sailed it today, but Bob didn’t have his boat.
Bob agreed the venue is fantastic.
I’m looking for sailors to join me tomorrow, then Friday and Saturday.

Anyone interested?

Best,

André Baby

514 426 4066