Chickawaukie Ice Boat Club

With last night’s cold snap many local lakes have flashed. South end of Dammy has half an inch, parts of Chickie are in, and Pushaw has begun to recover.

Half inch at Vannah Rd. over a gravel bottom.

Just alongside Pushaw is it’s sidekick Perch. Perch has a wonderful plate, now at three inches and growing. It is a bit smaller than Plymouth with great access. We sailed there last year for the first time.

The wind doesn’t kick in here until Friday, and looks nice for the weekend. Same forecast for Plymouth, so tomorrow we will have cleats on the ice and report.

Flagstaff Lake in Eustis has long been a tease, 26 miles of meandering lake with islands, rocks, points and narrows. Generally it’s snowed in but this is shaping up to be a less than normal winter. As tempting as it is from initial reports, have a look at this amazing video to see if you could navigate it in an iceboat. Even if you didn’t get wet you most certainly could get lost.

Also, the temperature is forecast to be -4 Thursday morning, just as the wind picks up.

So, looking at Plymouth or Perch Friday and through the weekend. Stand by for Plymouth report.

Five hungry sailors sailed today on Lac de Huit, near Thedford Mines. The surface was streaked with snow this morning, but the ice under was hard and the wind was strong enough for fast sailing. The snow fell for most of the day until it was pretty much all covered but no one complained, although Denis did say that after Pushaw this was a nice reality check!
With the slim pickings in the rest of the region this might be what we have to look forward to. We might have some ice making potential toward the end of the week if there’s another spell of windless nights.

As always in the early part of the season, be ready to roll on short notice. Is all your gear right by the front door? Lunch fixings in the closet?

This just in from André Baby: andrekbaby@hotmail.ca Check in with him if you plan to go.

First, Happy New Year full of health, great sailing and prosperity.

Iceboating- wise, it looks like the first sailable ice for us in Quebec will be in Thetford Mines. There is already an ice base on Lac du Huit, and possibly Grand Lac St Francois, and colder temps are predicted from tomorrow onwards.

We are hoping to get a group on Lac du Huit (= Col By) on Jan 2nd, 3rd and 4th. Weather and wind looking good.

We will make a decision after talking to Mark Tarini on Jan 1st, DN sailor with house on the lake.

Anyone interested ?

Accommodations are at Hotel du Domaine, 5 minutes from the ice, spacious and modern rooms, great restaurant, reasonable prices.

Cheers,
André

Here’s a lovely video made by Dan Stillman, first time ice boater who took to ice like a bird to the sky. After a day on skates he took Jim Turner’s Cheapskate for a tour. Looks like a natural to me. Last week on Pushaw Lake.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HcC4f5IZIYZYHn_C06jgWGyIg8K1ieZp/view

Meanwhile, Bob S reports Quabog is locked in but the forecast doesn’t look good.
In Maine, Umbagog continues to generate positive reviews. Skaters are lapping it up. Its time to get some boats on that plate!

On a hunch Denis took a ride over to Lac Abenakis yesterday just to have a look. He had the foresight to hook up the trailer just in case. And Voila! There was a lovely orange peel surface on a twelve inch thick plate. The lake had been snowed on, rained on, thawed, froze, and back again.

Sadly, the wind for today is right around nothing, as it is for the next few days. Then there is that little holiday, and then some warmth and rain. But as of now this is the only plate of somewhat local ice we know. In desperate times we can stretch the meaning of local.
Lesson here: if you think there might be ice take the boat just in case!