Chickawaukie Ice Boat Club

I visited again, around 1:30 pm today. The ice near the shore is now more like 1.25 inch thick. I didn’t walk out more than a few feet (since I left my swim suit at home), but there was a guy there who had put out a few ice fishing traps. He said that 15 or 20 feet out (as far as he went), the ice was about 2.5 inches thick.

There were also numerous incipient pressure ridges.

In big boat racing news, all Skeeters that sail in ISA events have the letter designations of their club on the sails. If the file below will open, all the clubs in the USA and their letters are there.

ISA Sail Letters.xlsx

New member Jack Wright just bought the old Ray Ruge A Skeeter from David Jones and wants to make it official, with his own number. The CIBC Board has decided to register with the ISA and the next question was: with what letters? The NIEYA recently got NE as they have two C Skeeters which might go to the ISA someday (Fred, George…?) Tom Nichols suggested we use the letters form the now defunct Lake Wallenpaupack Club, of which he was a member. (then he gets to keep his letters!) The letters are XX.

What this would do for the club is to give it voting rights at ISA meetings, so even if just one of us goes there, the East will have a voice. As far as I know, there are no more Eastern Skeeters going to ISA regattas. As most of you know I’ve long been trying to get a flock of Whizz to go out there and put on a show. If that were to actually happen, at least we’d more official than the ragtag gang we really are!

Randall Fairman had a look today and found this. Looks like maybe next week.

I visited Plymouth Pond around 1 pm today. Near the shore the ice was almost an inch thick, with a dusting of snow on top — 1/4 inch or less. The snow was about as dry as it could be given the ambient temperature of 28 or 30 degrees. Further out, I could see that in places where there’s an upwelling of water (or something), there are places with no snow. These might actually be open water or very thin ice — hard to tell from a distance. There are maybe a dozen such places visible from the road.

Here’s a nice short and concise guide to all the basics courtesy of the Nite class.

Nite Tuning Guide

All of it applies to all of us, but Newbies will find the upwind and downwind descriptions vital.

Tolman Pond, on Rt. 90 in Rockport, has long been considered a good proxy for Plymouth, an hour to the north. Today Toleman was nearly locked in with a half inch of black ice.

This bodes well for Plymouth Pond, which will be checked tomorrow. We’ll update here.

Michael Young brings up a good point. Both he and Larry Mazoway hit fisherman’s pop-ups last season. It turns out the price has gone up. The going rate to keep the fishermen happy is $40.oo. Keep a pair of twenties on board just in case. Better yet, give them a wide berth.

Denis Guertin sends this flash from Set. Aurelie:

Beautiful black ice on lac Abénakis but only 2’’ thick. From the shore, it seems all skimmed over.

Lac Joli has 3’’ of ice but surprisingly, I can see a few big holes of open water. It usually freezes all at the same time but this year, it did not! Still cold tonight but as always in Ste Aurelie, snow is expected on Friday and Saturday.

Frustration begins with the beginning of the Iceboat season!!

Regarding ICE, the opera, it’s available for viewing November 23-29. There are subtitles, the sets are stunning, and where else can you see a man singing his way through a hole in the ice in high operatic style, begging for a set of ice picks as he slowly disappears?!
Finnish National Opera and Ballet Presents: ICE on Vimeo

This is the link. If you need a password it is IceFinlandia.

Also, don’t forget that the Great Western Challenge is weekend after next, Friday- Sunday Dec 3-5 on the best ice in Minnesota. It’s a great time to meet all those folks you haven’t seen in a long time and have some great DN racing to boot.
There is a public page here with ice reports and updates. Minnesota Iceboaters is on Facebook