Chickawaukie Ice Boat Club

Every time we set out on the ice we learn something, hopefully. Last week we learned that with enough wind you can push an iceboat through most anything. Until you can’t and the boat capsizes.

The temperatures here haven’t been below freezing for at least two days and nights. There is twelve inches of ice on Hosmer Pond, in Camden. Six inches of pencils on top and six more of below fairly hard ice. Yesterday afternoon the average size guy was making footprints in the slush just from walking. It was forty-nine degrees and cloudy. This morning it was down to 40, with a nice breeze. The ice required checking. What a shock to find that it had hardened up, even though the footprints were still filled with water. The surface was smooth and lovely, just waiting to be sailed.

The DN was rousted out and set up with slush runners. By some miracle the ice was so hard that they didn’t leave tracks!

Hiking, sliding around the turns, the ice never failed, even at forty-five degrees. Note the lack of runner tracks in the photo. It almost looks photo shopped the way the boat seems to float on the surface.

The point of the story, as we learn over and over again, is it can never hurt to try. Show up and you might get lucky. When you sign up for iceboating you get a full dose of optimism to go along with it. Like all doses, it needs topping up every now and then.

This is the classic end of season shot, but after today I’m not so sure. What else is out there waiting to be sailed?

I have finally succeeded in getting the GoPro video that we recorded on St George lake posted on YouTube. Now I am learning how to share the link with you all.

Bill Bucholz scouted/found the ice and when I arrived Saturday morning there were another half  dozen or so ice sailors ready to have at it. The launch was a bit difficult for this semi able ice sailor, but all who were there helped me getting on and off the ice, MUCH appreciated. 

Once everyone had boats set up, and because the wind was blowing about 0-30 we were all sailing with full size DN sails, a storm sail would be fine in the 30 but useless in the very light air in between. Three of us had the boats and the ability to sail out from the launch area and explore the whole of Lake St George. We sailed for an hour or two, and the wind  seemed to be doing anything but decreasing. We were flying in the gusts, and bashing through the snow drifts and having a blast. I lost Jeff and Bill, so assumed that they had sailed back the launch site. They had not, but soon they did, and we all were able to have a bite to eat, needed. 

I then remembered that I hade brought my GoPro camera with me, I asked my fellow boaters if they would like to go out for a bit more fun and excitement while I attempted to keep them in front of me and the GoPro. As you will see, I did a pretty good job of following them and keeping them in front of the camera, even though you might notice I hade a spinout or two. Watch the forestay angle, the mast bend in the gusts really saved the day with those full sized DN sails. As you will see at about 17 minutes into the video I sailed into plank deep snow drift wit my SuperDN and came to a stop. I believe at the same time Jeff sailed into the same drift at speed with his DN and capsized due to rapid deceleration and big air. We talked a bit and decided it was time to head back to the launch. 

We made it back to the launch, found the the other sailors had been able to sail near the launch, so all was good. For the most part there wasn’t any broken gear, kind of amazing. Thanks to all who showed up at Lake St. George, hope you all had as much fun as I

With enough wind, anything’s possible. Sailing through crud, snow and styrofoam? No problem. But with the forecast tomorrow of more reasonable wind it will never happen at St. George. Plus, the launch rotted out last night. We had to launch over a nearby bank, shovel some snow to find the ice, and then walk out to find a relatively clean spot to rig, where you wouldn’t loose a dropped nut in the snow.

And the snow? There was easily as much snow in the air as on the ice. Great clouds blew by, some with small tornadoes thick enough to obscure a boat. When we finally got up the guts to go sailing and found out how sticky the surface was, heading for the clouds was the way to go. Even in half a gale, the old adage “sail where the wind is” still applies, even if it meant not quite seeing where you were going for a white moment.

The sailing plate on this wonderfully convoluted lake was reduced today by thick snow in the lees, and the bizarre effect of the strong wind on the topography. In most of the narrow places we love on St. George there was no wind. It was as if it was so strong that a venturii effect was sucking the wind away from some places. You won’t hear any wind speed numbers, but suffice it to say it was all they promised and then some.
Boat speed numbers? Right up there with Denis’s last Thursday. But thanks to Jeff Kent’s superb engineering all three masts came back today in one piece. Score: CIBC 3, Wind 1. Not bad.

Three older DN’s set up but had a hard time in the snow. Linc Davis got some good runs with his Cheapskate on 1/8” runners. Long 1/8” stainless insert runners would have been perfect for today if they could be made strong enough. Seems like at least once a year conditions would call for such a runner. Perhaps it would allow sailing tomorrow. Alas, we’ll never know until someone builds a set.

Less than an inch of snow, fresh breeze, sunshine. St. George is ON!