Chickawaukie Ice Boat Club

Somewhere it has been written: Don’t believe everything you read. We can now confidently apply that dictum to the weather report. I searched many sites looking for wind this morning and found none. Where did I eventually find it? Ruffling the pines outside as I did the taxes, and then in hatfulls on Damariscotta Lake. By eleven we were sailing in a blustery snow squall, some boats with storm sails. An hour later the sun came out, the Southerly settled in at 10kts, and about a dozen boats frolicked the day away, stopping for the occasional reflective moment:

Doug Raymond organized scratch racing using islands and fish shacks as marks. In the light air we’d do one lap, heavier air two. As always, a great skill building exercise and something we need to do more often. Thanks Doug.
Lloyd got the Cheapskate to hike by offsetting the hull on the plank, creating in effect a seven foot plank on one tack and a nine on the other. He got his hikes, and feels the boat even looks more streamlined with the short plank.

A few of us took a late afternoon gamble and headed for the south end. It’s a long walk home, but with such a lovely plate of ice down speckled with islands that it’s always worth the chance. We made it to the bottom of Muscongus Bay, did a couple of deep gybes on the silent ice and headed for home. The SW was flukey, but held, and one of the boats was able to sail the entire eight miles back to the pits non-stop on one tack, including through the narrows. Many people tell me that performance isn’t really important, they just want to go out, have fun and sail around. But to have a well tuned boat gives you the capacity to rise to the challenge of long tours and get back before the wind dies, all the while marveling at the magic of flying on ice. Back to racing, this is where you learn how to go where you need to get to.

Regarding yesterday’s report of a lunch-eating-beast, we now have no excuse for loosing our food:

Thanks Trixie: forewarned is lunch in the bag.

Forecast for Sebago looks like no snow, but rain later in the week and possibly on the weekend. But please take note of the above comments on the forecast. Rain is coming to Moosehead next week, so we’re looking for wet-out there and then a deep freeze on a Friday…

First, a serious iceboater’s warning: we locals have known of this persistent hazzard for many years, but feel we should warn the greater group of sailors who often come to Maine for our awesome ice. As we haven’t figured out yet how to have catered lunches we all bring our own. But there is a lunch-eating-beast amongst us disguised as a cute Jack Russell called Trixie. Lee Spiller took his next to the last load of gear to the ice, came back for his helmet and lunch, and noticed some familiar cheese bits on the ground near his van. Sure enough, his sandwich was gone. Commodore Fortier has lost so many sandwiches that Trixie’s owner bought him a lockable lunchbox out of guilt and compassion.

Aside from that and a few open leads around points Damariscotta offered few hazzards today. You could go as fast as you dared in the gusty NW wind on the hard smooth ice. General consensus called it an eight. Our Canadian friend Frank was trying for his mile-a-minute prize today; an excellent day for it if you could land in the right gust at the right time. His GPS was calibrated in kph, and we all assumed he needed to hit 100. By day’s end he was far from his cheerful self having attained only 98.3kph and breaking his fuselage in the effort. I suggested that 60 isn’t necessarily 100kph exactly and perhaps he should do the conversion and see what it says. A couple of frozen finger taps and up pops 60.2mph. We have a winner!

A group of early birds took a long tour down the Damariscotta River to the Unpassable Narrows. The photo tells loads about the shifty gusty wind down there. It was out of the west at this point, pouring over a steep hill to windward. We had lunch in Deep Cove later, and returned to the north end to find the lake swarming with boats. We counted twenty, a great turnout for a Monday in March. The wind held all day, the cool temps maintained a nice hard surface, and the sun was full on burn the nose mode.

As always, Lee and Karin sailed off into the sunset with the Gambit while others packed up the boats. A handful will see what comes of tomorrow’s light wind forecast, and then take boats off the ice until the next Magical March (or Awesome April) day.

We’re hoping for a near miss from the impending weather so we can get some racing in on Sebago next weekend. We’ll keep you posted on conditions.

Kate Morrone and Ramblin’ Roger scouted the entire lake today and report that it’s good to go. Light styrofoam stayed hard all day in temps low thirties. Should be great tomorrow and Tuesday with temps in the high twenties, full sunshine, and single digit nights. Good wind tomorrow, a bit light Tuesday.

As they say, we shoulda been there today. Sigh…

Congratulations to the racers in Kingston: way to go, guys!

About 4 inches of firm slush everywhere over 18 inches of base ice, much of it black and transparent. By Saturday AM Temp mid 20’s there was 1 1/2 inches of ice over remaining firm slush. Nice surface.

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Ramblin’ Roger and the Telephone Bills took an optimistic shot at Damariscotta today. At first glance it looked fabulous. At second glance, sailable with slush runners, which I did while waiting for the others. Third glance found Bunting stuck in a deep puddle. He had added ballast against the stiff breeze and it might have been what sunk the boat. Asa Bunting always says: “if there’s water out there, I’ll find it!” We pushed Red Herring through the shell and water, back to solid ice, thankful that it was a glorious spring day in the high thirties as my feet were completely soaked. While Bill and Roger went to de-rig I found a solid plate just outside the pits and had fun riding the strong gusts for a while longer.

Boats are on the ice, Chris Connary has installed his new spring board, and we expect the snow tomorrow to be followed with rain overnight with temps in the high twenties. The ice will probably not be ready on Sunday the same way it wasn’t ready today, but Sunday night will be in the single digits and Monday and Tuesday are shaping up to be great, but a chance of snow Wednesday. Continued cold all week should bring us nicely to the weekend for the Maine States.