Chickawaukie Ice Boat Club

Club lore has it that Sebago is ready to sail by Presidents Day each winter. It hasn’t been the case for a few years now, the big part of the lake just not freezing at all.Now it’s flashed off twice. The first time, it was covered very soon by thin light snow. A couple of iceboats tentatively ventured on to it. Then the whole plate blew out in the recent storm. In the calm cold after the storm the ice came back. A couple of very cold nights locked it in and a skaggle of skaters nearly circumnavigated the great bay.

Here you can see the old plate in Pump House bay meeting the good stuff. Frye Island is on the right. Over the horizon is the other side.

Lee Spiller reports:

“Almost..we almost got it. Another night or two of those lovely 0° nights and Sebago lake would have been on. Big Bay was frozen mostly and a dozen or so skaters were out. Jesse and Evan almost circumnavigated Big Bay but had some challenges on the NW side when the S wind began moving the ice. There were lots of open cracks today.We skated till noon when the 2″ to 3” black ice got warm and weird and no one wanted to be on it.

Today’s storm will pass. It’s forty degrees this morning and lakes are wetting out. No good for Sebago, but we might get a surface somewhere.

DN sailor Dennis Glidden died recently. His good friend and sailing partner Don Sterns tells us about him:

Dennis Glidden, a long-time member of the Chickawaukee ice boating community, died this week at his home in Cape Neddick, Maine.
In his professional life, Dennis was a nuclear inspector at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. In his private life, Dennis was a shipwright on the Gundalow project in Portsmouth, N.H., and an artist and metal sculptor.

He loved to build boats. One of his first builds was a south bay scooter with his friend Cliff Punchard. He went on to build three DN iceboats at Paul Rollins’ boatyard in York, Maine, with his good friend Peter Ashley by his side with plans and advice. Peter actually got Dennis into DN’s by giving him a test ride. Dennis named his iceboat Grey Ghost, and under the watchful eyes of fellow club members, he and I had the pleasure of logging 105 miles in one day on Sebago. Dennis later rebuilt a 27 ft. sailboat and launched it every year on a trailer he constructed. Adventure was never very far from this lad!

He came out to our place for a cookout this past October, and as he was leaving he turned to me and asked “ Are we going iceboating this year?” I replied “Yes we are, Dennis!”
When you hike an iceboat, you are threading the needle between a broken plank and a spread face plunge into the sail and the ice.
I can picture Dennis in a nice long hike as he sails ahead of me.
I remember Dennis Glidden, a remarkable skipper and my friend.

This is a really terrific newsletter. These guys have some of the best club spirit in the iceboating world. Check it out.
January 2022.pdf

Thanks to all who chimed in on this discussion. It’s important to have these conversations. This is the end for now. Fun posts and ice reports from here on in.

At the NEIYA pre-season gathering at the Thompson Speedway, one of the more experienced sailors told the story of going through the ice on Winnipesaukee last winter. As one of the relative ‘newbies’ (DN since 2019) I thought this was helpful and constructive. This experienced sailor took the time to explain how going through the ice had occurred – even to an experienced sailor – and what he did that made a difference. What a great way to learn from a voice of experience! My thanks to him and the NEIYA leadership for doing that. Peter Boynton (DN2864 & W-8)

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Not an ice sailor but have followed here for a few years. Suggest that Flying magazine be considered for models of how to balance enthusiasm and safety. There are three columns of interest. I LEARNED ABOUT FLYING FROM THAT- individual pilot stories of lessons from exercising poor judgment. AFTERMATH – analysis of NTSB accident reports. TECHNICALITIES – discourse on principles of design and aerodynamics, power plants, airframes, myth-busting and etc

Each are eminently readable and highly instructive.

How such approaches might be incorporated into this blog format, I can’t say.
Perhaps among you there are respected “specialists” who would contribute occasional or regular pieces

I earned a Private Pilot Single-Engine Land & Sea license many years ago. Reading Flying and AOP Pilot taught me why it was time to quit. But before that decision they helped me be a better, safer Pilot.

Perhaps your club members will see useful parallels. At any rate…

Have fun and thanks for the opportunity to comment. Anon.

Great comment! Far better to highlight ice checking, race committee prep, on-site support and vehicles, and highlight the scorers and other volunteers that make our sport safer.
Well said Dan! Ken Smith

Thank you –
Marcella Grunert

Well, that’s one point of view. Here’s another, contrarian that I am. When kids today take Driver Education in high school they are shown the most grizzly, horrific films of car accidents in the hope it might impress future drivers with the reality of what can happen. They now take this to the extreme by staging elaborate accidents with blood, ambulances, cops, etc. attempting to show consequences of poor decisions. We have people entering our sport, most, presumably with good judgement. Realistically not all. We’d been out sailing on Plymouth a few years ago. I came in to the pit area. A newbie was setting up. I went over and said the pond is a bit iffy in spots but one place to avoid is right over there. He nodded, jumped in his boat and made a beeline straight for that spot and went right in. This put several other at risk in retrieving his boat. So I respectively say to you, you have a right to your opinion. I totally disagree. I saw a guy taken away in an ambulance unconscious having come up under his sail, helmut filled with water. I can recount a dozen incidents that if people new about them it would potentially prevent injuries or worse. So sticking your head in the sand and sugar coating it is just plain dumb.
Doug Raymond