Chickawaukie Ice Boat Club

But if we were, today on Dammy would qualify as one of the best, one to put in your pocket and hold as a keepsake for the long off season. Perfect #10 ice, sunshine, good company, beautiful lake. The wind was west, so we can’t blame it for being less than perfect, but it blew hard and it blew all day. The sailing was full speed all the time, go wherever the wind sent you. Minor imperfections alongshore; just the usual.

The course d’jour was from the top end at the state park, all the way to the end of the narrows where a ridge blocked access to the south end. A few tight island rounding were thrown in for good measure in both directions. About an eight mile round trip. Do it often enough and you begin to feel transcendent.

Always time for a rest at a friendly shore.
That’s Bob MacEwen, Chris Malliet, Jos VanDyke and your reporter. The three Cheapskates didn’t make it down this far but had a great time frolicking in the broads: Linc Davis, Bryce Geele and Andrew Davis.

Tight sailing in and around the islands.

Jos had this to say:
"Best day of the season; nearly perfect ice, cleatr sky, good breeze with strong gusts, trying to keep up in my old dn warhorse (wooden mast, old sail), keeping up with 2 mini skeeters and Bill’s Whiz. Tried to find my limits and was frequent on two runners. Scarey and adrenaline pumping.
Long, fast stretches and fast approaching horizons. Had to sit up to be able to see what’s coming and to stretch my painful neck. Thank you Bill and Chickawaukee club for this new, exiting thrill in my later stage of life."

Top it all off with a fine lunch in the sunny window of the cafe and you almost are grateful for the impending white doom scheduled to beset us tomorrow. Today will seem so long ago and far away as we dig out.

Long term forecasts look great: don’t give up!

These stands were found today laying on the beached floating dock. If they are yours, please let me know. They are in my car.

It’s funny how these potential sailing days just keep sneaking up on us, needling their way through the most bleak of forecasts. Looks like a great breeze out of the west tomorrow, with temps right about freezing. Checking the ice today found a nice hard surface, air temp 30. Looks to have improved from last Saturday. Thickness holding at 7”.

There’s a slight chance of snow overnight. Anyone game? Launch will be as before, with planks, although much of the loose plate has frozen back together.

Best wind in the morning. Meet at 9:00? Let me know. Thanks.

We’ve been a bit lazy with the ice reports recently. Saturday was a fine day at Damariscotta, with at least fifteen boats. Many were there for the first time this season. No surprise there. The two C Skeeters made it down the narrows easily and were hoping to follow the lovely grey ice all the way to the horizon, but lo and behold the serious pressure ridge. There might have been a place to cross, but with just a couple of old guys sailing big boats it felt more prudent to head back north and do laps with the DN’s. The wind continued to fill in and was still blowing as the sun went down. It was a day beyond expectations: we had hoped to be able to rig, sail over to the far corner where there’s a nice path to the Cafe and have lunch. Sail back to the pits and call it a day.
There were two Mini Skeeters, two Dn’s, two Cheapskates, and two C Skeeters all duking it out, playing cat and mouse, and running the course. The access was on borrowed time, so we got all the boats off just before dark.

Sunday promised a SE wind coming in around noon just along the coast so we set up on Megunticook right after lunch. The Western Way runs NW-SE and usually we’re beating up in a shifty NW and running back down. This time it was just the opposite. Navigating around the end of a ridge blocking the entrance we were immediately catapulted into a feast of deep, fast gybes. Yet another ridge had left us a small door to cross and down we continued. There north end didn’t wet out as well as the south, leaving a stiff styrofoam surface, so we beat back down and headed for the turnpike. More ridges and trenches to work around and we were over by the road, racing cars on the downwind run. You think you are winning, but what’s probably happening is the car is just slowing down to look.
As you might have gathered by now, the lake had changed a lot since our last sail. The ice was absolutely wonderful, but there was water to watch for. Toward the end of the day, smitten with euphoria, Jory found a deep trench (rather, the trench found him) and the rest of us, just happening to look his way at that very moment saw the big splash from far away.

Which brought to mind this wonderful photo from the 2012 season at Plymouth Pond entitled "Putting the BOAT back in Iceboat."

The Southern New England DN racers found nice ice at Scroon Lake, New York and had a couple of fine days scratch racing and socializing. Thanks to the Upstate Gang for scouting the lake!

The north end of Memphramagog had some joy as well, with boats and kite sailors out in force both days.

If anyone can find any joy in the forecast in the next week, please share it!

A sailing ice scout put his boat through the ice. Don’t know more than that. He’s ok. Good reports coming in from Magog, however.

If you have any interest in racing DN’s, please see previous post, load up the boat and split! Kingston is a lovely city, especially in winter.

For the touring set, we’ll be giving Dammy a shot tomorrow. Not sure yet what the surface will turn out to be, or not to be, which is a big question. But it will be cold, there will be a nice wind coming on at around noon, and then similar, but warmer, on Sunday. We sailed both days last weekend. Can we do it again? Come try.

Plan on meeting at Lake Farm at around ten. That was if we gat skunked we can all retreat to the Jefferson Cafe and have lunch!