iceboating.net Minnesota Ice Sailing Association

annual easter regatta on mille lacs, 1 wk earlier this year than last with me, markham and molly. thinking minnetonka may be unsafe? 5 degrees cooler up there all week. markham is up for one more weekend, anyone else? but maybe rain on sat? so maybe one day trip for sunday only, 24 sat night, 47 sunday. just a 2 hr drive up 169, launch site on 169 at hotel and gas station, frontage rd where fishermen get on. meyer

I have a set of ice boat runner blanks. 2 are 30" X 4" and 1 is 26" X 4". They are 1/4 inch thick and made of very hard and durable AR 400 steel. When an edge is put on these it will stay sharp for many many outings. They have been wire brushed and coated with a black metal primer. If you are considering building your own ice boat or need runners these are a real bargain. I am asking $115 for the set. The shipping would be about $25

to see a photo go to the craigs list posting

http://nh.craigslist.org/spo/1654092108.html

walked out on tonka bay, looks great, no holes like waconia, out of harrys, bring plank to get on. as always be careful till fully checked out. tooo bad can't have regatta on tonka because we can sail all this weekend and maybe next. i'm blaming the democrats for toooooo much lake regulation. we need to get a winter permit for regattas, anyone know how do get it done? sail mille lacs on easter, fisherman today said 20" of ice, 1 week behind here. think it will be too rough there sat after freezing fri pm, could have sailed it today and fri.

At 1000 local time Pulaski Lake, Buffalo MN is in excellent spring sailing condition.

There is 18" of very nice clear ice, with a topping of about 1.5" of fractured crystal/rumbly ice.

There was no wind, hence I did not sail. Photos to follow.

CARPE DN

4695

This mornings little drive:

Pulaski Lake, Buffalo MN is substantially clear of snow with rumbly spring ice covering most of the lake, it's the darkest looking of the three lakes I observed. Dry feet access at the Park for now,

Buffalo Lake, Buffalo, Access is wet, ice is 10 - 20 ft from shore, there's still a lot of snow on Buffalo, least possible here.

Lake Waconia at the NE Public Access was dry feet access, a lot more snow / slush remaining on the surface of Waconia than on Pulaski.

The excitement is mounting with talk of great ice in Minnesota. Today is Tuesday.

To call this regatta on, we need boots and runners on ice Thursday morning at the latest, update to me by noon, so I can post the site. All this is so the traveling folk can get to the ice Friday. (Not the traveling folks sailing in Florida, the guys who already headed south, or the kayakers, but the iceboaters looking for one more good weekend!)

We had a pretty fantastic day on Lake Calhoun, well I did!

Ice Report: http://wcco.com/video/?id=76489@wcco.dayport.com

Between Pepin and Buffalo, we should have 50 CM of ice in pretty good shape by Saturday.

The challenge is things will change daily. We need some info for racing...

Unless you all want to go cruise with the A boats on Tonka, which I've heard rumblings about.

It only gets better!

4695

Bearded Jon Mattson, seen background left, representing IceBoating at the Button Reveal Contest at the St. Paul Winter Carnival, and missing the Great Western Challenge Regatta in order to do so.

He was out ripping on Lake Calhoun, in Uptown Minneapolis all afternoon hooting and hollering, flying a runner most any time he wanted to.

http://www.iceboating.net/node/2546

5366 was kiting most of the afternoon and confirms it's most excellent, a little soft, you'll like angles if you have them, but 100 degree inserts may serve well.

let's go , trying to promote it for westerns, close enough to mn to count. don't need passpport, just birth cert. so no westerns, who's going up, only 6.5 hrs, but don't speed on hwy 61 , just sightsee and avoid the wolves. two harbors has the cheapest gas. $49 for a cheaper rm, but food more expensive. it's really, really, really going to be epic!!! meyer

Truth be told, without J. D. and Jim McDonagh there never would have been a 2010 DN North American Championship regatta.

When nobody in the United States could find ice they jumped into Jim’s van, drove 6.5 hours north to Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, to scout for ice. The rest of the story is now history.

The class owes these two guys a huge debt of gratitude.

Thank you, JD. Thank you, Jim.

DN 5432

Last evening, Sunday there were over 24" of optically clear ice under 4" of snow ice and 4-8 inches of water/slush/snow. The forecast seems to support the following case:

All of the remaining snow on Minnetonka, and other local lakes will melt over the next 48-60 hours, the water will drain, and we'll be left with 18-24 pretty darn good inches of ice, temperatures cold enough to kick anything remaining on Friday night and a Perfect Day of Iceboating Friday/Saturday and Sunday... of course there should be a concern for those pesky drain holes, be careful out there.

Heading home now, on the North Shore..

It was the ground hog day regatta. Friday we went out around 9:30 and waited till after 5:30pm.. then the light & variable breeze finally produced enough breeze out of the SW to set a line and a top mark. We started a race! You couldn't tell from the start line, but the breeze came in on the lake side. Many on the shore side starting line either noticed and tacked, or got barted.

We got in 3 gold and 3 silver today.... no wind till around 2:00pm. Right after the Thunder Bay Yacht Club came out to the pit area and delivered hot dogs to the fleet, the fleet did a 180 on the course and moved to the other end. The wind freshened up and the gold-silver-gold races were good. Plenty of pressure. About the time the second silver went down it was starting to lighten up. The third gold was at minimum wind and the top guy just got his lap in before the timelimit. The third silver for the day was light too.