Chickawaukie Ice Boat Club

That title has two meanings: one is Wed-Thus-Fri, the other has to do with the latest forecast.

So just so we all can see now what we won’t be seeing tomorrow, here are photos from Dammy today.

The first scouting was from the launch on Rt 213, on the River. Ramp was nice, good parking, ice just fine, but the old pinch point was being its nasty old self and presented this mess. That limited the amount of sailing acreage.

There was an interesting patch of acne on part of the plate. Must be because it’s young ice.

All the drain holes are fully healed and as fascinating as ever.

Checking the north end from Camp Wavus was more hopeful. A tad thicker than the south end, nice surface, and ok access. The usual pressure ridge emanating from Wavus Point is off to a lazy start, just a healed crack.

Below, looking north towards Lake Farm:

And it’s similar view south towards the narrows. This is much flatter and smoother than it looks. Often, pictures enhance the ice quality, but it’s the opposite here.

The north end would have been the go-to plate if not for the brutally shocking WTF forecast. It will take a lot of courage to open your eyes tomorrow morning, but if you see more brown than white, We’re ON!

The seven inches of ice at the Vannah Rd. launch drops to four about a 1/4 mile out. There’s an obvious transition line. The ice fisherman were set up all along it, not daring to venture further. But we’re iceboaters, what do we know. Onward we went, letting the ax lead the way. Thickness stayed about the same all the way to the middle of the South Broads where a small pressure ridge went from shore to shore, blocking access further north. A skater could round it alongshore, but not an iceboat. The skating is divine, and reports tell about even better ice in the River, accessible from the launch on Rt. 215.

This is a particularly lovely drain hole, all of which are fully healed. There is sporadic minimal shell ice.

There are also random cracks out in the South Broads. As this is mostly snow ice, it will need time to solid up. Nice winds now forecast for Tuesday. Monday night will be in single digits. If iceboats wish to sail Tuesday, they should sail only in Muscongus Bay, and not venture out past the second island until that plate is thoroughly checked. Consider the conditions “sketchy”.

While you’re waiting and just to get the juices flowing (as if they weren’t already, now at the end of January) here’s a great video of the Gold Cup from last week:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNngrq7UI9s

If there was one photo from Friday’s sailing in the final day of the North American Championships racing, this one by Cathy Firmbach says it all:

For more phots and race results see https://www.idniyra.org

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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