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Later in the morning, the cars and vans and trucks begin arriving. Pieces of iceboats are hauled down to the ice and assembled, with a wrench borrowed here and a helping hand with the rigging given there. Attracted by the activity, skaters and hockey players and onlookers begin showing up. Local police or park patrol cars come and go, making safety checks.
Not quite the same as when the planks of the dock have soaked up the sun's warmth and the wind is kicking up small whitecaps, inviting single-handers to drop everything and head out for a day sail. Only a Fourth of July or a Labor Day is likely to stir up as much visible activity around soft-water sailing as takes place anytime ice boaters shove off.
And there is really no comparison between soft-water sailing thrills and that sudden heart-stopping whoosh of acceleration that rockets the ice boater up to 30 and 40 and 50 miles an hour in seconds. It's like being abruptly sucked into another dimension where the speed just keeps mounting. It's like kicking in the afterburners on a jet. It's indescribable, and it's what keeps every ice boater coming back for more.
 A scooter is being rigged with the mainsail attached and the jib, the latter still lying on the ice. | |
Despite a lack of widespread awareness, iceboats have been around for a long time. In New York, there are glorious wooden ice yachts, some over 100 years old, which still carve their tracks in the frozen Great South Bay or the Hudson River. The enormous Jack Frost, 50 feet long and weighing in at 2,000 pounds with more than 600 square feet of sail, has no trouble with a light snow cover on the ice. It can still accelerate to 80 mph in seconds, just as it did long ago when it was the fastest craft of any kind on earth.
In addition to the speed, there are other elements that sweeten the excitement of hard water sailing:
· The rarity of good sailable ice
· Cheap—no docking or anchorage or marina fees, no engine maintenance, boats available for under $2,000 or as build-it-yourself kits (my used homemade boat was $200—hey, it gets me out there!)
· The folks at the launch area with the hot dogs on the grill and the wood fire in the barrel
· The variety of boats, from great-grandpa's old wooden stern-steerer to the latest batwing on a plank
· The do-it-yourself ethic, from building the boat to sharpening the blades
· The opportunity to participate in local, national and international races
The downs
 The glorious 50-footer Jack Frost, once the fastest craft on the planet, can still accelerate to 80-mph in a matter of seconds. | |
· The rarity of good sailable ice
· OK, it's cold! But when the adrenaline is flowing strong, the cold fades away
· Travel and assembly and breakdown time
· Lots of tacking in small spaces
· Crashes and gear damage
Crashes and gear damage are more common than with soft-water sailing. Broken or bent masts are common because of the overwhelming stresses of the wind.
I've only been out twice this season and seen and experienced my share. In the first outing, an impromptu race ended in a collision at the first turn. No injuries, but the spring planks of both boats were torn off from the fuselages, as the narrow hulls are called. Spring planks are the slightly curved cross planks that support the fuselage and have blades fixed at either end. As traumatic as the damage was, no one shouted and cursed. "Accidents happen," shrugged one. "Gonna take a lot of glue," said the other.
I've seen a sailor come back with a brand new $1,200 carbon-fiber mast, hopelessly splintered in the middle, and he didn't fuss one bit. Maybe it had something to do with the cold and the conservation of energy?
During my second outing, one racer ended his day with a bent aluminum mast shouldered stoically up the launch ramp. An old-timer watching from his heated pickup truck offered the use of a spare wooden mast.
 Here the author’s boat with its distinct yellow and white sail, is flanked on the left by a J14 and a "parked" scooter, and on the right by a couple of skimmers, with another scooter behind the skimmer on the far right. | |
Easing the mainsheet turned the boat away from the water's edge, but it didn't slow it down that much. She wasn't going to stop until meeting up with thin ice, no ice, or the distant shoreline. She had to be headed into the wind to stop.
I put a foot over the side. "Grippers," the sleeves of bolt-studded leather strapped onto the bottoms of my boots, provided the friction needed to slow her down and turn her further into the wind. Then, down with the sail and a long slog back to shore, tugging the boat along by its forestay.
A far better end than one luckless ice boater met earlier in the season. He didn't manage to steer away from the water's edge soon enough, and had to abandon the boat there on the brink, half in the water and half on the ice, just before a spell of warm weather set in. No wonder that, in addition to racing trophies, the ice boating clubs also have annual awards for best rescues.
The hard-water sailing season is short, interrupted by thaws and blizzards and sometimes by years of warm winters. But whenever the ice forms thick and clear, the community comes together along the shore and on the broad smooth expanse, seeking that miracle of speed amid the delightful spectacle of people of all ages emerging from their winter cocoons to enjoy the ice.
Iceboating on the Web Because of obvious safety requirements, ice boating is a community sport. One of the best resources available to enthusiasts and would-be ice boaters is the Internet with its chat groups and resources that will enable you to tap into the closest group of hard-water sailors. Here are some links to get you started: · International DN Ice Yacht Racing Association: http://www.sailingsource.com/ice/ · New England Ice Yacht Association: http://www.concentric.net/~Dn4762/ · John Sperr's Unofficial Home Page of the Hudson River Ice Yacht Club: http://www.ulster.net/~mriceboat/ · Yahoo Discussion Group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IceBoating/
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