iceboating.net Minnesota Ice Sailing Association

4:00 pm update. Done for day. No races. Tomorrow's forecast looks bad. More fog and very light air.

Sat. 11:30 am. 45 boats sitting at shore. Under postponement. Pea soup fog.
Good day for the bartenders at Springers.

Imagine during a heavy fog/snowstorm/rainstorm that rolls in while you are sailing, you mistakenly sail your iceboat into open water. You manage to crawl out but suffered a couple cracked ribs and a broken leg.

You know what lake you are on but how can you accurately describe where you are located to the 911 emergency responders? You need a UNIQUE location identifier which is vital in any emergency situation.

Your GPS equipped cell phone has latitude and longitude but this is where the communication problems start. You location could be either:

2014 Western Region Championship called ON for Kegonsa

The 2014 Western Region Championship will be held December 13-14, 2014.

Another great day of racing on Sunday on Bald Eagle Lake under extremely windy conditions. I personally had 80 lbs. of ballast and it still wasn't enough. Congratulations to the Commodore for having the fast boat of the day, driving the malt powered "bunnahabhain" to two first place finishes. He found the fast line on the course was right through the bull rushes, which apparently must have had some magical runner polishing effect resulting in unbelievable speed.

Apparently, all it takes to make the Western Challenge GREAT is perfect ice and lots of wind. Today's final three races were GREAT. Even better than the five races we sailed yesterday. We raced three high speed races in a strong breeze, on lightning fast ice, on a very large course. Put those factors together and it is easy to understand why today's racing really was GREAT. It was one of those days where you simply ripped to the corner and turned left. Today, tactics were not a factor. Today, the game was about speed. Today is why we love this sport. It really was a GREAT day.

Today was for the history books. 80 sailors dukeing it out on fast, fast, "cadillac" ice. Full on, pedal to the metal racing. Five races completed and nobody has any idea who is leading. All the major players scored a DNF for a variety of reasons in a day that saw an inordinate amount of very scary crashes. Still, when all was done, everyone agreed it really does not get any better than today.

Tomorrows forecast of 10 mph winds and 32 degrees temps could make this one of the more memorable Great Western Challenges.

The ice is beautiful... like Champaign! Light winds today but still managed to get some good practice sailing later in the day. Because there was no regatta quality ice in Minnesota ( yes we checked Buffallo, Green Lake and Christina, and others) we moved to Lake Kegonza just east of Madison. The change of venue to a more central location has attracted nearly 80 boats!!!! Nice to see all the east coast boys along with a dozen Canadians. Ron Sherry brought guys from Sweden, Germany and the Nerherlands. I even met three guys who drove from Nova Scotia.

For Sale: ''Rum Runner" a classic 32' Stern-steerer Ice Yacht for sale.
18' plank, 34' spruce mast.
Two sets of runners (cast iron and angle-iron snows).
Fully battened Dacron Main and Jib.
Custom-built tandem trailer with sail box and Jin pole.
Boat was originally a Detroit boat built in the early 1920's. Completely rebuilt in 2001 with new plank, baskets, mast and rigging.
The price is $5500
I need to get this boat out of my yard.
Located in Pepin, WI if you want to take a look.
Text 715-308-5024 or Email newcomb@tcmc20.co

For the first time ever we are handing the reins to our good friends in Madison at the Four Lakes Ice Yacht Club.

Minnesota had it's early ice and now we move on. We won't make anybody drive by the good ice in Madison.

Lake Kegonsa it is.

Lodging and the Launching information will be posted on the Four Lakes Ice Yacht Club web site

http://iceboat.org

Those of you from Minnesota, don't worry, it's the same driving distance to Madison as it would have been to any sailable ice around here.

Think Ice!

Our friend, Mike who lives a mile away from Christina, reports they had about 1 inch of fluffy snow on Friday night, Nov 28. The lake was pretty clean and bare prior to that, similar to our sailing on Sat Nov 22. The high yesterday was about 28. It is blowing 20 out of the NW there now and expects the light snow to either blow off or drift up. He reports the farm fields had lost most of the snow cover after the sun and warm-up last Sunday. He will send me a couple photos later today and walk the lake with a report. I shared 3 photos of Green Lake so he can judge better or worse.

Paul Larson walked the lake today and reports 5-8" solid good ice with at most 1 inch snow from Thursday. Many portable fish houses up to the north and west, but plenty of ice for racing. He is setting up in Spicer launch around 11AM. Winds look like 8-9 and comfortable temps. Sunday big winds and cold.
time to scout it Sat. Who is in?
Miller

Lake Pepin reports 2-3 inches of ice with 4 inches of powder snow from Nov 25 on it.
It has froze over a couple times earlier and wind blew it open. No ice fishing on it yet except in a few back bays of Frontenac and Wabasha. Main Lake is considered dangerous now!

Green Lake at Spicer report at 5pm Wed per Paul Larson:
The rain sunday really helped the ice..... looks nice and smooth....won't know for sure until I get out on it of course.....a bit of snow here and there - just hope we don't get more and or it blows off. 2 ice houses (1 canvas sided and 1 hard) and a 4 wheeler out from the County Park on the NE side after work today. Reports are 2 to 5 inches of ice. I'm hopeful. more later. Paul

Mike Bloom reports:
No new snow at Ashby and Lake Geneva has open water on east end.
I should have a Pepin report Friday.

Thinking that the Spring Park landing looked good. The bay has been frozen for a while now, time to investigate....

A total of 8 boats sailed Lake Christina today and judging by all the end of the day smiles the trip north was worth it. We all sailed last week either on Christina or Swede lake so the first time jitters were long gone. The focus today was racing.

We sailed numerous 2 lap scrub races in light to med winds on a huge race course that some estimate to be nearly two miles long. Not surprising, JD and the Doctor ruled the day. The rest of us just tried to finish in the same time zone as the leaders.