Chickawaukie Ice Boat Club

DN scratch racing on Grade ten ice. It might have been Bo Derek ice, champagne ice or Hollywood ice but it was perfect. Temps in the high thirties made it just soft enough to be grippy yet wet enough to be fast.

Boats are getting dialed in for the worlds, although we expect to have more local sailing before then. Left to right: Jost VanDyke, Polyblank, Buchholz, Roseberry, Young and MacEwen. Courtney skated and took video, coming soon to this very site.

Good old Plymouth Pond. It’s been the CIBC’s opening gambit for many decades. And if you’re driving through Plymouth some day be sure to stop at the store. Admire the patina on the front door: it will be in a museum some day.
Thanks to Guy Polyblank for getting there early and scouting the sailable plate!

The pond dodged last night’s white bullet and it appears that it will dodge the second one tonight. The winds are more moderate tomorrow with temps above freezing. The holes in the north corner will not have healed so will need scouting and posting. There were two small holes in the middle that might have frozen. Let’s try to find them before they find us.
Holding the Linc Davis Cup might be problematic with the NE wind because that places the leeward mark right in the neighborhood of said holes. Might make the mark rounding more fun but we’ll discuss that on the ice.

This will be the only sailing day on this weather cycle. Three days of cold, wet crud to start Friday.

First, looking ahead, Plymouth Pond has a constant three inches of herd Black Ice. There is a hole right at the launch ramp probably caused by ice vandals, but the secondary ramp is fine as is the rest of the bank. The same holes Tyler spotted on Sunday are still there, off to the SW corner of the lake. As with all the black ice now in Maine it is achingly beautiful.

There is only one forecast that is not promising snow tonight and into tomorrow. Most tracks show snow from Wood Pond in Jackman to Pushaw, Plymouth and Conshewagen, basically all the known ice in our universe. Our skaters Bob Lombardo and Jeff Roseberry had some good glide today, Jeff on Wood Pond in Jackman (see last post for photo) and Bob on the south end of Pushaw, below:

This is looking north from Goulds Landing at Dollar Island, all about two inches.

So the bottom line is that unless the snow changes course there will be no sailing tomorrow. The good news is that much of this ice will survive and might resurface after this weekend’s forecast mess.

On an uplifting note, Denis made a video of our sailing in Ste. Aurelie over the past few days: https://youtu.be/3Bi_0Rm-fas Tip of the helmet to him for scouting this plate and to our hosts Linda and Ghislain at Le Morrilion B&B!

Lastly, don’t forget we are still early in the season and the ice can be tricky.

The New Zealanders have broken the world land speed record. It’s a little side project they’ve been working on just to stay busy between America’s Cup campaigns. Watch it here: https://youtu.be/deFkgf6KaV0

Locally, Scott Carlson and Stacey Keifer hit the jackpot today on Little Millinocket Lake. No word on thickness, but the surface is supreme and they skate sailed all day:

Back in Quebec the fun never ends. Karen, T, Jeff and Dave continued scratch racing today, tuning for the Worlds. The breeze filled in from the north, right down the center of the lake with better than promised wind speed. Denis was back in the Whizz. All boats are on the ice for at least one more day:

Meanwhile, for the rest of us, the Linc Davis Cup is tentatively planned for Wednesday afternoon at Plymouth Pond. The plate will be checked tomorrow around sundown and the final call will be posted here right about dinner time.

Lastly, that lovely photo of Pushaw posted here yesterday? It was indeed skimmed over, but the wind today took it out. But, we’ll have a closer look tomorrow and include that in the evening’s report. Welcome back to one day at a time.

Quebec was wonderful; folks will be sailing there well into the week, more on that later. The real news is that both Plymouth and Pushaw are locked in with about an inch. Tyler Vroman had a look at Plymouth today and measured thickness at the launch. Dave Godine flew over both of them and reports that Pushaw looks a whole lot nicer with probably also an inch,

Below, the south end of Pushaw.

Below, Plymouth Pond

And just for good measure, one inch on Wood Pond in Jackman. Not that we would, but we could…

Figuring ice will grow an inch in a day with the cold temps forecast we might have a decent plate by Tuesday. or Wednesday. We’ll monitor the developments and report back here.

Thanks Dave and Tyler!