Chickawaukie Ice Boat Club

As the end of ice sailing is the official beginning of ice boat building season, don’t forget that you’ve been given nearly a full month of extra building time. Bob Scribner is finishing up W-34 in southern Maine, Ryan Haskell plans to have his new Mini Skeeter on the ice next season and a couple of guys in the upstate New York group are stating on a pair of Pocket Skeeters.

What do you have in your pocket?

Just to get you in the building mood, here’s an article by Ray Ruge about building an iceboat in the sticks, during the war, when materials were hard to come by.

"WAR BABY” – A Simplified Version of the Bow-steering Ice Boat. By RAYMOND A. RUGE on Army Assignment. hrmm.org

Stand by for Spring meeting, although it’s not actually spring for another ten days!

Dan Stillman made this video of our sailing at Moosehead the other day.

Moosehead Lake 3:9:24 youtube.com

Looking ahead, there doesn’t seem to be much hope. While there are occasional mornings below freezing, by and large all the days reach into the forties. With thinner than usual ice, it won’t be able to hold out much longer. One could park themselves at The Birches, sail the cold mornings, work remotely in the afternoon, and carouse with the locals around the fire in the evenings. That would be good living!

But for the rest of us the sun has set on our season.

With that in mind, after you enjoy Dan’s video, pop over here:

Aretha Franklin "Nessun Dorma" LIVE 1998 youtube.com

Try to figure out if the tears welling up are from the music or the end of the ice, or both.

When iceboaters talk about alignment it generally means getting those runners down to less than .000001” out. But the other alignment that’s just as critical, if not more so, is that of the stars. The weather stars.
Wind, temperature, ice surface condition, location. Our demands are very steep: we need a big frozen lake with a nice surface, plenty of wind, easy access, and we want it all for ourselves. A few fisherman around the edges are fine, but we want the whole thing.
The stars were as closed to aligned as they could be today on Moosehead. All of the above, in addition the one critical extra ingredient: good sailing buddies. Ones that really pull the sheet, know how to cross pressure ridges and are up for an expedition. And, as below, can dance a jig.

Launching at The Birches this morning, the obvious goal should be Kelly’s Landing for lunch in Greenville, twenty miles directly up wind. SE 15-20 with moderate gusts. Three pressure ridges later, and miles of lovely, flawless spring ice, a fleet of seven docked at Kelly’s. The French Guys, Nils and Guillaume, pulled in soon after the photo below. Left to right: Buchholz, Guertin, Sean Guiness, Dan Stillman, Michael Young.

This sail was the longest point to point in club history, as far as anyone knew. But, just to be sure that we had some kind of record we doubled down and set sail back up the lake in an endless cascade of lovely gybes, got to Kineo and took a right.

From there to the top of Northeast Carry all you see from the deck of an iceboat is horizon. But with that slant giving a deep reach we shot up there in no time, crossing three more pressure ridges. The ice in this giant bay was even better. No reason not to push the boat hard, go for maximum speed. Especially if the other guy is doing it. Lloyd Roberts sage words came to mind as I pulled hard to the very end of the sheet: “there’s no shame in driving your boat to the edge of destruction on the last sail of the season”.

Here, at the top end of NE Carry, Kineo is a small dot behind the guy on the right.

Also on the lake today were Dave Fortier, Tyler Vroman, and the Brothers Dimitrov with Renegade El Diablo and a Lockley. Don’t ask…

A special tip of the hemet goes out to Dan Stillman who is sailing Leo Healy’s old DN. Leo would have been honored and thrilled to see his boat take part in such an amazing tour, sailed by a guy who just started out the season in a Cheapskate. Leo was the founder of Winnepesaukee, The Hard Way. Anything we do on Moosehead holds a great debt of gratitude to him and all he taught us about how to get a fleet of iceboats from one end of a big lake and back intact. This tour logged a tad over 100 miles, boats and smiles intact.

Could this really be the end? To be stuck without ice and the summer blues again? Aretha is warming up, but there are rumors of a big lake in Quebec…

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Things appear to be shaping up for a day sail at Moosehead on Saturday. The snow that followed the rain earlier today fell on to the wet ice and mostly wet out. So now we have a nice grey surface. Temps are dropping below freezing tonight, tomorrow and Friday night. Chances are good that the plate will firm up nicely.

We don’t know if the warm spell had any impact on the structural integrity of the ice, or what sort of hazzards there might be. Last weekend there was 16” at the Birches, but things change quickly this time of year.

Be that as it may, the wind will be great, out of the SE, and clouds will keep the sun from doing much damage. The Birches is open for lunch and dinner.

Pending any late breaking bad news, let’s call it ON for Saturday, The Birches, Moosehead Lake, Maine.

Last season, taking a break
in the middle of the lake.

Moosehead Lake has been coming in and out of focus the past few days. The morning forecast looks hopeful but by evening it’s not. And visa versa. Quebec about the same. All lower elevation lakes seem hopelessly lost. Bob Lombardo will try an early morning skate on Pushaw tomorrow (walk right on…to the slush) hoping the low of 32 will harden it up for a few hours. I suspect he’ll get it. We won’t.

Just to keep our juices flowing, here’s a short clip from China Lake last week. It demonstrates the great joy in narrow passages with balls to the wall sailing each side. It’s why lakes with features are so much more interesting and fun than fish bowl lakes. Unless all you need is a race course, but that’s a different story.

The Ins and Outs of Ice Boating youtube.com

These tight narrow passages hone your technical skill. Notice how Denis throws in a couple of deep gybes to keep powered up as he sets up to round the end of the pressure ridge.

If anyone sees any joy in a forecast for anywhere, please speak up!