iceboating.net Minnesota Ice Sailing Association

let's hope the west end freezes monday night. east end is frozen and madison frozen with big dump sunday. bring your optis too. meyer

The ice is still good and sailable as of 12/14. 2-3 inches of generally powdery snow. Not much resistance, but still takes more than a 3 mph "breeze". So sad when mother nature doesn't cooperate. 1 more Nite and 1 more DN set up now.

any ice report from there??? meyer

Looks like the regatta season has begun!

The Western Challenge Regatta is an informal DN gathering that has been going on for ten years or so- traditionally held the first weekend in December on the best ice in Minnesota… Yes, Minnesota. It’s a big state a little to the west of here.

The lure of early ice is hard to ignore and for years some of us have talked about going but balked at the last minute. A few years back I gave it a shot and drove solo from Indiana to Battle Lake, MN only to run a stop sign and total my trusty Chevy Astro about two miles from the lake. So close and yet….

La Crosse, Wisconsin
December 7 - 8, 2013

Congratulations to Mr Ron Sherry for a strong showing on Sunday in the light air. He came back to win the regatta and at the same time he had a great time getting his boys out on the ice for an epic father son weekend.

Silver Fleet went to our man in Madison, Dave Elsmo! I'm sure his enthusiasm for iceboating, and his role as college sailing coach, has really ignited the college iceboating scene around the four lakes area.

Thanks to everybody for coming together and getting the four races for each fleet in. They had to be run under tight time limits. Saturday we barely got the racing in before the sun went behind the bluffs. On Sunday we had to get started as early as possible as the wind was going light and the blizzard was fast approaching for the drive home. Thanks to everybody working as a team, we all had some nice racing.

Gold Fleet

Pos     Sail       Name                    R1     R2      R3      R4      Points
---     ----       ---------               ---    ---     ---     ---     ------
1       US 44      Ronald J Sherry         1      6       1       1       9
2       US 4691    John W Dennis           2      3       2       4       11
3       US 4824    Mark R Christensen      8      5       3       2       18
4       US 5224    James A Thieler         3      2       13      6       24
5       US 4487    Chad Atkins             5      1       8       10      24
6       US 4926    Steve Orlebeke          6      7       9       3       25
7       H  467     Dideric van Riemsdijk   4      10      4       11      29
8       US 5014    Mark L Isabell          9      4       5       18      36
9       US 4       Griffin Sherry          7      8       14      17      46
10      US 5432    Mike Bloom              16     21      6       7       50
11      S  713     Rickard Gustring        11     12      19      9       51
12      US 5469    Oliver Moore            24     13      11      5       53
13      US 5214    Jim McDonagh            17     11      10      22      60
14      KC 4536    Bob Crinion             14     19      16      12      61
15      US 4257    Jim C Gluek             DNS    9       17      8       62
16      US 602     Tom Meyer               20     16      12      16      64
17      US 4961    John P Davenport        13     18      15      19      65
18      US 4775    Eben M Whitcomb III     12     24      22      13      71
19      US 5298    Scott Brown             10     20      DNS     14      72
20      US 4811    Markham G Chatterton    DNS    14      7      DNS      77
21      KC 5514    John Curtis             15     23      23      20      81
22      US 2545    Michael P Derusha       23     22      20      21      86
23      US 5414    Wes Wilcox              18     17      DNS    DNS      91
24      US 5369    Mike Miller             DNS    DNS     21      15      92
25      US 5352    Daniel F. Hearn         21     15      DNS    DNS      92
26      US 3271    Mike Jankowski          22     25      18     DNS      93
27      US 2360    Pete Johns              19     DNS     DNS    DNS      103

A shoreline report from Lake City shows about 2 inches of new snow over solid ice. No significant pressure ridges noted. When it warms up Thurs or Fri, my contact will take a walk out to see how smooth it is.

There was a bright yellow plank or sail bag turned in at the LaCrosse site. It was found near the dock/ramp on Sunday. I have it in Minneapolis area. If you lost it, call me at 612-868-2949.

harry allen reports that a large of area of the main lake opened up and refroze sat. so only has the little bit of snow on it from sunday. In front of his house etc also may be sailable as last big strong storm fell into water on the ice. So plan on setting up at harry's. meyer

Sailed the whole lake yesterday. The rain that came with Wednesday's snow kept the lake free of snow. There are some pressure ridges that every one avoided but it is generally safe and clear. Got in two official races yesterday and we are trying for more today. Racing starts at about 1:00. DNs, Notes, even a Skeeter are sailing out there. Hoping to get a historic stern steerer or two to join us. Casual racing. Hopefully the snow falling now won't amount to much. And we can still sail next weekend.

Everybody had a pretty good day catching up with their iceboating friends and aligning runners. We all had plenty of time to get all those little maintenance items on the boat done.

Some participants were out on the ice at 8 am and got a few early morning puffs but everybody had to wait till after 3:00pm before we got in 2 Gold and 2 Silver races.

Just when a couple of skippers took their sails down, the wind came on and the team sprung into action. We got the marks moved, starting line set in record time and started cracking off races.

Does anyone have a report on the ice conditions on the main lake?

I added an image gallery for the regatta.

We had shifty wind blowing around 8 to 12 mph. The ice was really hard and fast.

It was really great to see all my friends from the all over the world. I'll bet the gang sailed two dozen races. I counted over 35 boats all lined up doing a scrub race! It's great to see this meeting of friends to enjoy what we love in an informal atmosphere.

Black Ice Friday.

We are going with Buffalo.
Launch at Sturgis Park

Buffalo was all frozen up on Sunday. Although we did get that heavy wind on Monday and Tuesday, so who knows.

I'm going to go check it out tomorrow and see what's what. Nobody has been out on it yet, so If you go, be careful. It might have blown out on Monday and only have an inch on it.

I'll report back tomorrow.

Spring Park Bay of Lake Mtka. has kicked!
Photo taken at 11 AM Wed Nov 27. One inch only as far as you can see! Give it a few more days and could be a great sheet! I am going to be near Swede at 10 AM Thursday to walk it and spud a couple holes. Preliminary report from last week is it has some rough ice.
Meyer and I plan to sail some ice somewhere on Friday-Sunday.
Miller