Chickawaukie Ice Boat Club

Fairer winds verging on light greeted us at the pits this morning. The night was freezing so the ice was hard, and with the overcast skies it stayed that way. Many boats switched to slush runners, but the top boats were all on plates. We sailed the first race without ballast as the wind felt light, but it piped right up and it was all I could do to keep the darn thing on the ice. But we were favored by a lucky wind shift on the last lap and finished 8th out of 23 boats.
Everybody scrambled for their 50# bags of lead shot before the next start, but just a minute before the flag I felt the wind lighten a bit so dumped the lead and went. It was a drifter, but my crew Dimitri must be an Olympic sprinter because he kept us going in the lulls, and at a very key leeward mark rounding. We took 10th. Last race was just a fine sailing breeze and in spite of a lousy start clawed our way back up to 9th.
Don’t know yet where that places us in this World Championship, but I don’t think the CIBC should be feeling any shame. I do wish we had a club burgee to present to hosts for events like this…

The wind was too light for a fourth race; we had a late start due to some confusion over whether there was wind or not so time ran out. Don’t know why they start late at eleven; when is the first start at a DN regatta?
I just spent the morning before the race doing what we usually do: reaching around witnessing the miracle of flying on ice.

The white boat, Snow White, is sailed by a Swedish father/daughter team, while in the background is one of the heavily sponsored Russian boats. Is there some kind of irony here?

This class is healthy and growing. The Estonians have built four new boats this season, and organize at least a dozen local regattas a year. Two of the new boats are here, and the builders are in their late twenties. One of the guys told me that the girlfriends don’t mind that they go building iceboats on the nights and weekends instead of drinking. “They like we are doing something useful”. You heard it here: building iceboats is USEFUL!

This was sent in by alert news-person, Margaret (Pooch) Buccholz. Many thanks.

http://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news

Sebago, getting on at Nason’s Beach, was a vast expanse of white 1/2 inch of snow on pretty good for this season
ice framed in Alpine pressure ridges parallel to the shore and beach. The ice was thick enough to park cars and
trailers on the ice, very convenient. The Nason family, owners of this lovely beach, are happy to have ice boaters and numerous ice fishermen use the beach which they plow for our convenience.

Friday afternoon was lovely sunny with only modest air of varying strength that did not inspire enough confidence for
long distance touring. Sebago is so big that ice boats disappear before they get to the other side. So we sailed around very pleasantly until about 3:30 when the wind rapidly faded as suspected.

Saturday the NEIYA put on their Don Fellows regatta after standing around most of the day in no wind that finally came in
abruptly at about 3:30 with steady strong air that kept them flying around the course until sundown.

Finish places were: 1st Eric Anderson, 2nd Greg Cornelius, 3rd Dave Fortier, 4th Warren Nethercote (Canada),
5th Peter Van Rosen (Canada), 6th Jack Erickson, 7th Doug Raymond, 8th John Stanton, 9th Bob Haag. See NEIYA.org for details.

Sunday the CIBC Maine State Championship DN regatta was held. Abridged results (race records blew overboard on
return to pits and never found) were recollected as follows: 1st Eric Anderson, 2nd Chad Atkins, 3rd Steve Madden,
4th Ed Adams. Other racers; Peter VanRosen, Wayne Nethercote, Doug Raymond, Dave Fortier?

A forecast major precipitation event in mid week may end the Sebago frolics for a while. Possible rain along the coast may spare or even improve Chiakawaukee and Damariscotta. Stay tuned. .

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Some of you will remember racing on Sebago a few years bak when we were all lined up ready to start when one of the boats blew over in a gust. The gust never quit so the race was called. It was deja vu all over again today. We were all lined up, the started had walked out with his flag and started the countdown when a DN in the back ground capsized under way and launch the skipper on a long slide down wind. The gust was clocked at 30, so we held the boats steady for about fifteen minutes until the race was formally called off.

We did get one practice race earlier and the US team placed somewhere in the middle. They sail a figure eight course here and I was terrified of being in the lead and forgetting which way to round. Thankfully, that will not be a problem.

We had a lovely long downwind sail back to the pits, which I drew out as long as possible. We had to take back our pit crew boss Boris; he didn’t fit easily into the cockpit, while Dimitri rode on the plank. A fairly intense package in 25kts. But the sun was warm, the ice was still hard, and the scenery spectacular. In the distance are the snow covered mountains of Norway. I sailed us a couple of extra miles to the ferry’s open fairway before gybing around and heading for the pits. I has a feeling we were done for the day and wanted to get as much as this as possible. Indeed, two hours later racing was called for the day.

Ripping along, not wanting to take her home and call it a day.

The Estonian and Finnish teams arrived today, delayed by a storm in the Baltic that kept the ferries in port. There are over twenty boats now, with racing to start tomorrow. Today we explored the lake in a fresh breeze, and I learned how to communicate with my sheet trimmer: thumbs up, thumbs down, turn signals and head nods and shakes. It appears to translate very well into Russian.

The pit crew, Boris, Igor and Dimitri have done a wonderful job of tuning the boat and applying my sail number.

The poor guy in the foreground left his diamond stays at home, so he borrowed a pair of old shrouds and was splicing new ends with an ice pick as the sun goes down. In my country, I think the sun has already set on seat of the pants skills like this.

He teaches a course at the University of Sport, St. Petersburg, on iceboat sailing and construction. Two of his students came along to sail with him. It’s a holdover from the days of state sponsored sport. There were over 500 Monotypes in the USSR in the eighties, all state owned.

Sailing these boats is challenging with all that sail area on a 13′ plank. With the stiff mast there’s no where for the power to go but into a hike, so the trimmer constantly has his eye on the windward runner. Having the sheet trimmed for you is truly the lap of luxury in that “your wish is my command” kind of way. There is a delightful older couple from Germany and she drives the boat while he hauls the sheet. I suspect teamwork is a critical part of sailing these boats well. Dimitri and I seem to have figured it out today, but tomorrow is showtime!

The opening ceremonies, Old Betsy down back for the lone American entry.

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