iceboating.net Minnesota Ice Sailing Association

After a couple months off, it's time to start thinking ice??? Really? (click for pictures below) Not for me, I don't have any big iceboat construction ideas this summer, but obviously others do. Looks like there is some interest in the under-represented C skeeter fleet. Racers? maybe. Passionate builders? Definitely. Here's a couple boats being built right now. the green hull is an old A skeeter hull being cut down to a C skeeter by Lance Bennett of New Hampshire. He is starting with a heavy hull, but I think he has a great plan, all the right go fast ideas, and it will be a great boat. This one is guaranteed to be a racer, and at a bargin price that you couldn't buy a good DN for. With a little construction guidance this one will be just as fast as anything out there. Then there is the black hull in carbon in the workshop below. This is being built by Bill Buchholz in Maine for a customer in New Jersey. It is being built off my frame patterns, and I am looking forward to getting pictures with this one and mine side by side. Bill has unbelievable building skills, and has gotten more construction done in the past month than I can get done in a year. He is the C-skeeter mast guru, so this one will be fast!! There are also some other C skeeters completed within the past couple years. The black one in carbon N-654 is Easterner Rob Marsh's. This picture is a couple years old, so hopefully it has paint now. The patriotic red, white and blue boat was completed at the end of last season by Tom Graham of Michigan. He didn't quite make it to the ISA, but we expect to see it this year if he can figure out how to hold the battens in at Mach 10.0. The black boat XX-94 is Tom Nichols, and it looks small, light and fast. It's amazing how wide of a design range works well in the C skeeter class. Small and light, big and heavy, both stratagies have advantages in certain conditions, but they all fast when the wind blows. Who was that famous iceboater that once told me "Pat, you gotta average". Still not sure what it means, I just pull hard and point high. So most of the C skeeter activity is out East, but if there is any local building interest, let me know and I can help get you started. Have a great summer, and don't put off those iceboat maintenance projects until November!! Pat Heppert, "Drifter" I-291 , six one two 282-3098.