Chickawaukie Ice Boat Club

In spite of a forlorn forecast for the entire week, enough wind built in each day to give us great racing. Sometimes the course was short and full of lulls, but a few races were run around the long figure eight course. The wind was generally NE, directly down the runways, which made for many memorable tacking and gybing duels. Woe be to those who kept not wound up on the downwind legs: once it was gone it was wasn’t coming back easily.

The wind was so insecure that on one course we had a windward mark at both ends. Kudos to the fleet for rolling with all the weirdness. We were sailing, the boats were moving and we were racing on an amazing venue.

This photo could have been the course directions, but it’s actually some sort of directions designed to confuse the Russians in case they took over the base back in the Cold War.

The lack of wind made time for base exploration. The deeper we dig the more interesting the history becomes:

The airmen’s creative side:

The unlimited fleet was’t as able in light air as the BloKarts, but still managed to get some good races. Jeff Kent had a beautiful new sail:

Which very soon went to the other Jeff:

There was a very exciting moment when the deep roar of a big plane coming in low turned all our heads to the far end of the big runway. There was one little BloKart out there playing chicken with the plane, who was coming in with headlights on and landing gear down probably hoping for a touch and go. The BloKart held his course, exercising his right of way over the four turbo prop motor vehicle and the big guy yielded, pulled up and banked off to the west. It appeared to be a C-130 cargo plane but had no military stickers. Maybe an expert can zoom in and identify it.

Peace: 1 War: 0

Here are the other results:

The BloKarts are holding their own regatta, Blokarts only, this coming October 9-13. The Saturday of that weekend will include all kinds of festivities. Come watch, come try a BloKart, come just to soak in the powerful vibe of this amazing place.

Michael Young was on the road recently and snapped this picture for us. The title is “Only Seven More Months”. Can you guess the lake? Clue: might need slush runners and a good dose of bravado and stamina and hopefully a storm sail.

Swap Meet booked for October 29, Thompson Motor Speeday in CT., same as last year.

September is closing in fast. And speaking of fast, fast sailing in particular, it’s time to dig out that checkbook or cash stash and sign up for Loring.

Dates are Tuesday Sept. 10 through Sunday the 15th, racing in the Unlimited and BloKart classes.

Welcome banquet at Northern Maine Brewing in Caribou at 6:00 on Wednesday.

Racing begins Thursday, skippers meeting at 9:00, first race at 10:00.

Ditto Friday and Saturday.

Great barbecue Saturday evening. Awards ceremony after unless Sunday is needed to complete the regatta.

We made some last minute changes to the schedule last time because of the wind conditions and everyone rolled with it nicely. But with six days of sailing we have lots of options.

Please send in your registration ahead of time. It is refundable if your plans change, but it makes life much easier for the organizers.

$120.oo to:

Bill Buchholz
31 Gosses Hill Rd
Camden, ME 04843

Thanks!

Even before we completed our eighth regatta at Loring last week, plans were being made for the next one. And not just the next one, but the next TWO.

The BloKarts have scheduled their own Eastern Championships October 9-13. They are hoping the Wisconsin crowd will come back, as well as a few international guests.

This link will tell you all you need to know about that:

https://www.facebook.com/NewEnglandLandSailors/

The usual Eastern Landsailing Championships with BloKarts and Unlimted classes will be held September 10-15. The only changes with that event is that we encourage you to leave dogs comfortably at home. There is a real risk of dogs getting hit by a boat, and people are not picking up after them.

The high point of the week was the Northern Lights, which came out just as we were finishing up the barbeque banquet.

Thanks again to all the cooks, and especially to Nina Fleming for running the races safely and smoothly. Here are the results:

Hope to see you in September!

Note Taking 2.pdf