Chickawaukie Ice Boat Club

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.

Bill Bunting sent in this report of today’s sailing:

Ramblin’ Roger the Ice Gypsy, with DN Gingerbreadman; Scott Woodman, with pocket skeeter Yellow Bird; Ben Fuller with the antique gaff-rigged sternsteerer Tipsey; and yours truly with Nite # 86, Red Herring, enjoyed sailing on Dammy today. The light south wind softened the snow ice crust just enough so that ones teeth did not rattle when hitting the reefs at speed, while the lanes of smooth, dark ice that ran through them provided magical, velvet acceleration. Sailing alongside Tipsey and Yellow Bird, I realized how fortunate we are to have such very different yet equally admirable creations in our fleet. At about 3.30, seemingly in a matter of minutes, the crust turned to slush, but all made it back to the farm under sail, including Roger, who had doubled the Narrows Passage. I was very pleased that he had when I realized that my battery was dead — Roger travels with all the necessities of life packed in his caravan, including a set of heavy duty jumper cables.

Bill Bunting

Myself, I went back to work this morning as the forecast had no wind, thus violating the prime maxim: show up and pray. The wind filled in nicely after lunch until I could take it no more, so hitched up the trailer and went to Megunticook to set up. The SE wind blew right up the Western Way, and filled the Broads perfectly. The ice is probably not as nice as Damariscotta, but it was the first time this season with a boat on Megunticook and well worth the effort.