Chickawaukie Ice Boat Club

Things are looking up for the Christmas week. Cold nights , calm winds and days below freezing will bring us lots of black for the holidays. Damariscotta at Vannah Rd. is starting to freeze; the north end is open. Typical.Pushaw is junk for the foreseeable future. Plymouth Pond has 6” of medium hard ice with a 1/2” dusting of snow on top.

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It’s probably sailable, but the winds are light for the next few days so we need to find a better surface.

Unity Pond, not far away, was just on the other side of the snow-rain divide. It already had an 1 1/4” of black ice when an inch of snow fell and then was quickly wet out by the rain, The resulting 2 1/4” is weak; the two layers are actually not bonded. Here’s a chuck cut out:

But the surface is just lovely.

Those shiney spots are not holes, just spots that wet out differently.

So for now, this is the plate to watch. The first decent breeze in the forecast is Tuesday. By then this lake should be bulletproof. But some others might be as well.

If anyone knows of anything else worth looking at please check in here!

We have all kinds of possibilities, but nothing for sure yet. I think there’s a good chance we’ll have something, though. Some lakes that were open when it snowed formed weak slush ice: 2” and can’t stand on it. Others were open and the snow dissolved. Those might build enough thickness of new ice. And then there are those that were frozen when it snowed. Today it is raining lightly, forming ice on the roads, and hopefully will do something good to the snow covered lakes before it gets cold again.

Specifically, Pushaw looks to be getting rain after a dash of snow this morning, and then a hard freeze tonight. Sabattus already was snowed out and based on the storm track looks like it got much more. Messalonski, near Great Pond, had a half inch of black ice yesterday. It lays on the rain-snow boundary so could go either way. There are some other lakes near Augusta that Karin Wilson is watching.

The web cam at Damariscotta is still out, so that will be checked by eye tomorrow. Lake Chickawaukee is still open. If we can find something, it looks like a stellar stretch of weather over Christmas. Dare we ask for a Black Christmas?

First, congratulations again to all the participants of the 2022 Linc Davis Cup. Ye Olde cup has been engraved with Guy’s name because who wants to wait until Spring Meeting to get the cup? The first name on the cup, from 1978, is Warner St.Claire, founder of the club. The rest are a collection of who’s who in CIBC history. The silver cup was donated by eminent yachtsman Linc Davis from his trophy collection. Since the entire cup is covered with names, Dave Fortier made the base, with room for four new plates. Let’s fill it up!

The winner and other racers get plaques, which will be mailed out soon.

Well done Gentlmen!

News from Quebec, Denis and the Thedford gang got together on nice ice in a good breeze He reports:

“We had a very nice day last Tuesday in Thetford. 2 sailors from Thetford were there, and 3 others came from Montreal. Ice was 7” thick, orange peel with a few ice bumps. I sailed a total of 64 miles at an average speed of 26 mph and a max speed of 56 mph (Yes, I bought a GPS last summer !!!). No wind yesterday. Rain and warmth today, cooling down tomorrow, followed by snow Saturday and no wind in the forecast for weekend. So that may be it for a while around here.”

Getting cold next week!

This Winni Spring Frolic document was discovered in the back of an old iceboat, along with a map of Winnipesaukee from 1975. It must be a very early Hardway, as the rules are very relaxed, to say the least. We have some new guidelines coming for that event, based on what we learned last season. Don’t get your hopes up for an eleven dollar dinner!
Document_2021-12-16_175758.pdf

Just like Plymouth Pond last week, we had a one day wonder on Pushaw today. The temps finally dropped back to where they belong this time of year and the lake wound up with between 2 1/4 and 2 3/4”. There were thin areas in the middle as well as some soft water pools. The ice in the photo below was smooth as glass.

Given half a chance this plate would have developed into a first class sailing venue. Sadly, weather is moving in with no easy outcomes.

Seven skaters and a set of twins in pram skated the west side perimeter from the bay south of Goulds Landing all the way around to the point at the entrance to Lucky Landing.

There was a massive beaver hut in the marshes.

You can see it in the background, the big pile of dirt, but what’s really interesting is the line of bubbles in the ice leading from the mound to the open hole, the Beaver family’s front door.

Thanks to Bob Lombardo for keeping an eye on Pushaw.

All eyes will be on all the lakes as this next system passes through. No telling what we might wind up with, but if it’s even half of this, that’s a five and we’ll sail it. We were treated to early ice on Sabattus last season, lets watch it.

xx