Chickawaukie Ice Boat Club

On a tip from a skater we checked Auburn Lake and Marancook, in Winthrop. Marancook is the more interesting lake in a north wind: a long beat up and joy ride back down. The launch area is horrible, but a boat will move through it.

Right at the horizon is this kind of surface:

Ice is hard and 7” thick. Most of the snow does not hide a slush pit. There is about three miles of good ice before hitting snow near the north end.

At Auburn the plate is much better. Same thickness and hardness, almost no snow, just the bands that are seen below:

There is a crossable pressure ridge separating the north and south halves:

There is enough real estate for a good course on the other side of the ridge (of course) or maybe enough for a short course on the near side. You can plot this ridge on the map by locating the pumphouse at the boat launch ramp at one end and a point at the other, running SE-NW roughly.

The downside is the parking. There is room for maybe six cars, and then a few more down the street a bit and maybe a few on a side street. Carry on or RoRo only, no trailer access.

Looks like Saturday could be the start of something big. Great wind and sun stretch out into the next week. Thus-Fri no wind and chance of light precipitation. Nothing to worry about, really. Looks like we could sail here until we got bored and then go give Marancook a shot. Neither of these lakes, to our knowledge, have been sailed in recent history.

First one to find the leaf on Marancook wins. This was not staged!

Lake Damariscotta from Lake Farm is in tip top shape for an epic week of sailing. Six inches of ice, five black and one grey. If the storm tonight gets Mother Natures Nudge we’ll be in the clear. If not, we’ll be at work.

Fred Wardwell built an awesome runner sharpener and his daughter Martha would be happy to sell it to an iceboater. Some belts included, 220v.

Needs a bit if fine tuning but it’s all there and runs nice. Can be used for all kinds of dust making applications besides runners.

Call Bill, 975-6980. $450.00

The snow is lovely, light and deep,
But now it starts to creep.

Around the edges of wet out ice
the white stuff moves like little mice.

Pulling the curtain over our plate,
If it changes not, to rain, it will be too late.

Nature cares not one snot
If we go sailing or not.

The snow that’s falling should be rain
But the pure white stuff is the meanest stain.

We look now to our brothers south,
To check the ice, send word of mouth.

The coming cold will chill the soft
And once more go the sails aloft!

x

One, Two Three, just like that: the days of sailing roll on by. Another fine day today in the south end with the wind stronger than forecast and a bit more out of the west. The westerly opened up the nice bay near Camp Kieve and Red Roof Island. All the ice through there is good. Thickness is now up to six inches.

Above, looking south into Deep Cove. In addition to the Whizz and Bob MacEwen’s Mini Skeeter here, we had Jos VanDyke with DN, Linc Davis with Cheapskate and Rob Dimitriof in his beloved Lockley. The club certainly ticked the diversity box today!

There is a long ice puddle extending from the west side, opposite the last island before the narrows. The ice is still connected in the bottom of the pool but will probably burst soon. A pine branch marks the west end of it.

The ice trail along the shore is much harder now and is actually a nice walk coming and going. The wind works its way down through the trees to give an occasional shove, especially just as you are navigating through the dead branches of the fallen tree.

Looks like the snow tomorrow is minimal so sailing could be had but for the lack of wind.

Here are some highlights from today:

Iceboat Damariscotta Lake, 2024 Jan 23 youtu.be

And one a bit calmer:

Damariscotta Lake Iceboat 2024-01-23 youtu.be

As always, best viewed on the BIG screen.

As happens sometimes, we are awash in ice. So many options. We locals are going to Damariscotta, per previous post.

Michael Young reports decent ice on Eagle Lake, MDI.

Eddie Zelonish skated the north end of Thompson after doing the south end yesterday. 3-5” everywhere with a pressure ridge right where it was last year. Pure Black Ice.

Randy Rice skated some more Black Ice off Leavitts Beach, Winnipesaukee yesterday. It’s bound to be growing like weeds just now.

Lastly, we all know about the humble ax as an ice checking tool, but it is also very handy for salvage at sea operations.

Do the same rules for soft water salvage apply to hard water? In this case they did.