Chickawaukie Ice Boat Club

The big rains the other day worked wonders on the ice. The snow all wetted out, drain holes are minimal and the smooth grey surface is an easy grade eight.

The edge, as you can see, is slightly compromised but can be easily stepped over. This is the view from the launch at Vannah Rd. Parking is tough with the snow plow berms.

This close up looks much better. Thickness is seven inches; top two of slush ice and bottom five black.

Speaking of thickness, it what the plot does as we move north. Checking from near the narrows found only three inches, and not a great three. Top two slush ice, bottom inch black.

It’s good enough to walk on, but not much else.

A skating scouting party will explore north from Vannah Rd. to find the transition point. The north end, below, is about like the narrows, but the access is very bad.

Good news is that the entire lake appears to be buttoned up and temps later this week should add thickness. Wednesday looks very promising with nice wind and sunshine. The flag is up…!

Congratulations to all the New Englanders who did so well at the Worlds and North Americans this past week in Wisconsin. And to those who didn’t do so well, too. Young Milo Fleming placed third in his first NA race. Sadly, his coach, who loaned him the perfect runners for those tough conditions, failed to place the proper stickers on the runners so he was given a DSQ. Nonetheless, a 3rd is a 3rd!

Photo by Cathy Firmbach

Day one of the North Americans turned into a lay day as light snow fell straight down most of day.
A few bored sailors, braved the light air and snow up to the stiffeners, to try and build deep wet snow light air sailing skills. Not that you’d ever willingly want to deploy such skills, but it was something to do.
We found a nice breeze, well out on the lake, where the shore line receded to a dull grey line.
Close reaching and deep reaching worked fine, but anything too close up or down put on the brakes.

More than a few sailors chose to pack up and head for home, seeing no joy in the forecast.
Indeed, the snow is still coming down tonight. The stronger winds tomorrow and even bigger on Friday will stress the boats to the limit in the heavy snow.
But as one happy sailor said today, we would normally never sail in this junk so it’s fun to at least have the opportunity to try.
But racing?

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With the sun setting on the DN Worlds, folks are getting ready for the festivities tonight.

Young Milo Fleming, 5777, is turning in an exceptional performance. Final standings will be at the same link from the previous post.

All three fleets got one race in before the wind died in the afternoon. It was touch and go all day in sticky snow and bonded drifts. Looking for clear lanes of ice, watching the telltales and constant sheet work made for hard work.

Nearly the entire gold fleet ghosted across the line together, some running, some walking, and a few managing to get the breeze and sail through. Most notably was Mr. T, smoking the pedestrians to rocket into a fourth place finish. The crowd went wild.

We have some down time before the North Americans start tomorrow. Nothing like a nice chair after a hard day at the tiller.

Day two at the DN Worlds was a huge step up from the day before. The wind came up, the snow stayed soft and the rough ice under kept you at the edge on the fast runs down wind.
The race committee hit their stride, cranking out back to back races in all three fleets all day long.
Team New England is posting a fine showing. Check here for the latest provisional results.

Lake Kegonsa , near Madison Wisconsin, is a favorite of ice fishermen. A few set themselves up right in the course and seemed very happy to have a front row seat for the action. Their little camps were a feature on the course to consider, and actually were helpful in providing reference points as the sun went lower and finding the top mark became hard. The course is over a mile top to bottom, so it wasn’t a matter of just going to the corners. There was a lot of action in the middle of the course with upwind boats moving over to greet the downwind boats.

We all come for the racing, of course, but the people you meet and the places you see are just as special. As Pat Heppart put it: this is the one time of the year when you see all your best friends in one place.
And not only that, it’s the time to form new connections with people from all over the world as well as those from near home.

Think Ice!

The first morning of racing in the Fiftieth anniversary of the DN World Championships dawned grey and white. An inch of dry snow dusted the fleet of over a hundred boats.

The wind forecast of light air all day did not inspire much hope in in the skipper’s hearts.

But this is ice boating where hope springs eternal. The fleet dusted off the boats and after a one hour delay a small breeze filled in, just enough to move through the snow and at times enough for a little hike.

The Bronze qualifying race was held, then a Silver fleet race followed by a Gold Fleet race. A second Silver was started after chasing the shifting breeze with the starting line, but the race was black flagged anyway.

It is still unclear why that race was stopped but the race committee is doing a stellar job under very challenging conditions.

Big winds for tomorrow. Rough ice, sticky snow, strong winds? What could possibly go wrong?

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