Chickawaukie Ice Boat Club

In addition to Lloyd’s Sliver of Chickawaukee, Lake Wassookeag in Dexter has this to offer: www.lakewassookeag.com

And Lee Spiller describes a romantic moonlight skate on Cochnewagon Pond, about the size of Chickawaukee, in Monmouth, Me:

I got to Monmouth about 8 and checked Cochnewagon Pond right in town. Oh my gosh marvelous interconnected multi acre black ice sections (3″) with pebbly grey ice and some snow in between. Karin Wilson came down and we skated for a long time..lovely black ice and moonlight..making ice sounds. Unless something better pops up we are going there tomorrow. Probably set up an iceboat or two and maybe kitewing.
I can only think there are more places like this…I don’t know why this pond has so much good black ice but it does…and I don’t know what it looks like in daylight. I haven’t been around here to check other ponds but Karin says this is the best locally.
Lee

There’s probably still more that we’re missing, but thanks to Lee and Denis for spotting these!

Somedays you have great ice, nice breeze, sunshine and a fun bunch of iceboats cavorting around a beautiful lake. Aligning all those disparate elements can actually be called iceboating. The sailing part is just the frosting on the cake. And speaking of frosting: the six inches of Plymouth ice was frosted with an inch of light unbonded snow this morning at ten. Jory and I walked halfway across to where we knew there was thin ice a week ago but found nothing but thickness. But the 15kt breeze was working on the snow, packing into tight little drifts. Scott Woodman and Jory set up their boats anyway and had a go at the snow.

It was pretty good sailing as long as the wind held, as we needed the power to blow through the thick stuff. But the double edged sword here is that so much wind over snow that can stop a boat can cause some boat busting. Indeed, as Jory turned rather sharply to line up for a drag race next to Yellow Bird he spun out, the mast came down and his chock was removed from the plank. How the mast down and chock off are related we have no idea, but it was the end of the day for Icywood. The anodizing on the top of the chock had not been ground off so the glue didn’t stick, and the bolts didn’t fully penetrate the the chock. Two strikes and he’s out.

We took turns sailing Scott’s new/old ride Yellow Bird. It’s probably a 7/8 model of a Northeaster, and a delightful pocket skeeter. The parts are small and easy to move, and she sails very smooth and easy. With the DN rig she is a good match-up with Icywood, but it will take decent conditions to really get her dialed in.

Did you just hear “decent conditions”? Don’t get your hopes up. We are not going back to Plymouth, but hope the snow forecast for Sunday will miss us and allow some of the lakes that were open during the last dump to thicken. Wind forecast for Saturday at this point is nil anyway. But, we’ll continue with the legwork, see what we can find, and post it here.

Our spy on Plymouth, Tim Smith, reports ice conditions there, which are identical to what we are seeing on nearby Toleman Pond here in Rockport, Me:

An ice base of 3-4″ thickness with pebbley grey surface, and a 1-2″ dusting of unbonded snow on top, blown clear in the central portions of the pond. It sounds pretty good to ice-hungry ears! So, if you are free, and care to follow the motto: “show up and pray” please join Bill and myself on the landing there about 10 AM.

This is the start of a very cold patch of weather, lasting, without a moment’s thaw, until snow on Sunday, so if the ice thickness and surface are good, and the winds are good, and the creek don’t rise, and our bodies can do another season (please Higher Power!), and the gear is all there and working, we could have a nice stretch of iceboating.

Since it is a wonderful 3 day prediction of goods winds and brutally cold temps, we’ll probably leave our boats on the ice for the duration.

When we were there last week, we noted lots of grass growing through the ice. It’s not clear if the lake is lower this season, or if the aquatic weeds are getting more bothersome in this very shallow pond.

But above all, even though it seems like these single digit temps could freeze anything, let’s scout the whole lake carefully before we go to higher speeds.

hope to see you there…..we’ll report to the stay-at-homes, via web, on Thursday night…..jory

Plymouth last season:

As we begin another ice season, launching out into the uncertainties of mother nature and of health, I sing this little prayer to my iceboat buddies, and to myself: