Chickawaukie Ice Boat Club

6AM…. teacup in hand, I sat in my meditation chair, looking out at the spasms of the evergreen outside: hmmm…tons of wind….a prayer naturally arose: dear Higher Power…..we know you order the many conditions of wind and ice….we know you giveth and taketh away….but you know, HP, this season has been a biggie in the taketh away, and a smallie in the giveth….what would it be like, just to even things out, say, for us to sail until May 1?……

I tracked down the gear, hitched the trailer, and drove the mere 1.4 miles to Megunticook….light cloud, wind 15-25 and gusty NNE….storm sails–could they be reefed?–came to mind….nobody around yet….ice presently hard, but ready to slush-out at any minute…the gear, once unloaded, began skittering off downwind….a quiet intrusion of wisdom: Do I really want to do this?….let’s face it: you can easilylose the hang of iceboating….without your buddies calling at 630….denying, exaggerating, downright lying….without this HYPE….the cuddly koala bear in our souls would take one look at this, and say….warm up the coffee, mopsy, i’m coming home!

but good old Lloyd was there, keeping faith, setting up Cheapskate….Bill was off to buy champaign….typical….I’ve even seen him smoke cigars….I checked in with Bunting, and, as usual, he decided that only fools would go out in this…. so i eased off the emergency brake and luffed and crabbed my way up to the lee of Davy Jones Cove. By now the spring sun was out, the ice was sparkling with crystals, and, with only very few scabs to avoid, it was a delight to sail on….hey, this is great!

and it truly was….the ice was without hazard, thou the boat speed was sometimes terrifying. I often used a tight-sheeted sail while sailing dead downwind, as broad reaches would take you out of control. I kept station with stately Cheapskate, that most forgiving of boats, until Bill joined us, and we blasted up the western passage, a threesome, against the howl….At the north broads, about 9:15, in a momentary lull, I could feel that the ice was softening….but with so much wind to overcome the drag, it was easy to blast thru Chaney’s Narrows and reach Wipe-out Bay…There, alas, the wind was definitely mellower, and the spector of a long push home–my storm sail possibly unequal to the friction of slush…made our decision unanimous: to roll the dice and head home for slush runners…

but once back in the North Broads, happily, the wind was as strong as ever, and we stitched our way South, and frolicked over to the turnpike section….there all three of the “fangs” passages into the turnpike, were blocked by open water….this is, after all, April…and besides you craved the open spaces to bleed off speed when the boat became hell-bent on self-destruct….finally we gathered at Davy Jones’ and opened the champaign…

and there we lounged, in the bright noon sun….clothes stripped off….Bunting, who had sailed after all, and I swapped stories of our blue-water sailing days in the 60’s….we worked slowly down the bottle…even sharing drinks with two passing skaters, who were totally slushed out….then, slightly tipsy, I had another lovely sail in Cheapskate, which brings one back to the excitement of our first seasons of iceboating….when the sport was simple, exposed, elemental….finally, with the slush getting inches deep, we left our boats on the ice for a possible early-morning romp tomorrow …ahhhh….spring sailing….what could be better?

The ice on Megunticok is hard frozen granular, essentially frozen slush, but hard enough to support many, many iceboats. The water from the other day has drained and evaporated, taking most of the snow humps with with it. The sun will shine tomorrow and the wind will blow, so even if the surface gets soft, slush runners will bring spray dappled grins to all our faces.

And don’t get the idea that because tomorrow is April First that this is some kind of sick joke. Nope: real ice, real sun and real wind, on one of the most beautiful and intimate lakes we know. Plus, in accordance with a new CIBC policy, Champagne will be served on every sailing day after March 31st. No Joke…

Jeff Kester from upstate New York has an interesting project under way. Don’t forget, the iceboat building season is about to start!

I am about to pull the trigger on a buy for 420HC stainless for runners and I am wondering if there would be any interest in your area. 420HC is similar to 440C, but it is more resilient against chipping and more corrosion resistant. Our plan is to make either 7 or 15 sets of skeeter blades. The sets will have 42” side runners and a 30” steer runner. I plan to do alligator nose style, but I also have a European modified bull nose pattern as well. I’d be interested in supplying partial or complete. At a minimum, I think it would be best to supply after water jet cut and vacuum heat treat. I could also supply edged, or completed. My plan would be to deliver them at the next New England swap meet.

I am not 100% sure of the cost yet, but am thinking a set completed would be under $1000. The runners will have 1-1/2”x2”x1/4” aluminum stiffeners and a 1” UHMW mounting bar for DN style chocks. Basically, these are modeled after Jack Jacob’s J14 runners.

Additionally, I am in the process of building a mast mold. The mast is 7-1/4”x2-1/8” in an aerodynamic tear drop shape. They will be glass and carbon, we will be able to do up to 22’ blanks. In the first year we will just make a few and prove them out. After that, we will be interested in selling a few to recover the tooling cost.

Contact Jeff at: jjkester

After scouring all the forecasts hoping for a racing window on Segago’s awesome ice, sailing for the weekend has been deleted. We will continue to scout for a good surface at South Twin, Sebec and Moosehead in the coming weeks. Their two feet of ice is still covered in snow, and the chance is excellent for a cold morning after a wet-out event.

Bravo to Lloyd, Bill and Ben for tearing it up yesterday like a trio of spring pups. I, for one, broke the don’t sail alone rule and hoping for some racing this weekend thought I should get a little DN cockpit time. I explored every nook and cranny of Megunticook and found it solid and tight. Jory hasn’t sailed our home ice all season so I had to get that in the books for him. Bob Lombardo was skating the perimeter and also found it excellent.

After the orgy of ice sailing on Dammy this last couple of weeks with the pits full of resting iceboats nights, sailors weary with epic commuting to the Southern hemisphere, racing around islands and generally taking advantage of typical end of season sail until you drop desperation. Then all of a sudden they left. Even Rambling Roger from Maryland having camped in his van for a week, nothing but ruts in the snow and frozen mud except for the HARD CORE.

Three patient skippers, Ben Fuller with antique “Tippy”, Bill Bunting with Nite “Red Herring” and Lloyd Roberts still doing acceptance trials with newly minted “Chaepskate”, waited out the gale winds of Wednesday intending to pull their boats Thursday before the long overdue Spring warm weather moved in. Just going to Dammy to load boats seemed frivolous so we assembled in late AM for a preload sailing.

The Wednesday gale had sucked in the usual gusty NW wind, but not arctic cold now, about 30. It was sunny and perfect March sailing. No voyages to the bitter end of the lake, just flying around on the ice possibly for the last time. Lloyd made one last trial of the assymmetrical plank testing for the desirability of a 7 foot plank vs. the plans specified 8 feet, the “sport model” Cheapskate. He figured that if the intended hiking was too much he could lower the whole sail. Unnerving abrupt hikes in puffs and one good whack in the head from a modestly lowered boom scuttled the research. Two new members, Ted and Carolyn Vaughn, experienced water sailors, came by to sail Cheapskate in the choppy air. While they played Lloyd offered to provide welcome ballast in Tippy which was already carrying 50 pounds of shot. We had a wonderful classic sternsteerer rumbling sail smashing through shell ice and snow mounds with aplomb and a fair turn of speed.

While we were off reaching the lake the Vaughn’s took turns sailing Cheapsklate having a great although chilling time, not enough clothes. The’ve gotta have one, maybe two. They already have some vintage made in USA bed rails. Then we adjourned for lunch having paid attention to the sign on Bunting’s “Trixie” terrier about stealing sandwiches and locked down the goodies. I dozed off in the sun in my truck after my sandwich, Bunting dozed off in the sun with Trixie in his lap. When we came to the sun was gone and the sky dark grey. Oops, time for one more loop around the pond and then knock them down maybe for the year.

Tippy got the start on Red Herring who was slow getting going. Cheapskate did one of her classic down wind starts and flew by Red Herring in hot pursuit of Tippy finally catching her at the far end of the lake. Then skipper Roberts nipped her around and decided to let ‘er go for the home end.

I couldn’t see much of the ice surface or even tell what the sail was doing with sun glasses in the dark gloom, but there was still plenty of wind. So I told Cheapie, “this is it girl, full tilt boogy for the far end, hold together now for the final leg of proof trials”. Pedal to the metal, both hands on the sheet, tiller between the knees, we absolutely flew the full length of the lake shell ice, unseen snow piles and all. We rounded up gently by the colored buoys near the State Park all pieces still connected together and a rare tingling running up my spine. The Fat Lady didn’t have a chance.

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